By Our Reporter
On Saturday, Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), a non-governmental organization championing universal access to rights based SRHR information and services conducted a dialogue on sexuality health highlighting the need for sexuality education.
Dubbbed the Inter-University Dialogue and held at Freedom Square, Makerere University, it was attended by a host of students from various institutions across the country. The event also attracted state and non-state actors in higher institutions of learning; top academia, cultural, religious leaders, health professionals, media and policy makers.
Themed, “The role of culture and religion in promoting better sexual health outcomes”, the day’s discourse was geared towards promoting sexual health as a fundamental human right to all people without discrimination.
Speaking during the event, Hon. Jacob Opolot underscored the importance of sexuality education noting that it is pivotal in empowering communities. “Sexuality education is very important. Communities must be empowered with information that will enable them make informed decisions,” Hon. Jacob Opolot, who was the guest of honor said.
Although Government has made tremendous effort towards addressing sexuality health concerns, most of it’s aspirations remain unachieved with several adolescent health related policies remaining in draft and unoperational.
“We need to be mindful of audience and context when delivering the message on sexuality health,” noted Henry Ssemakula, a senior officer from the Ministry of Education. “The message should be culturally and religiously acceptable, but more importantly truthful and factual.”
According to the Ministry of Health, sexual and reproductive health-related problems still remain a huge challenge in the country, for instance 25% of Ugandan teenagers get pregnant by the age of 19 and about 49% are married before their 18th birthday.
“The truth is there is a problem,” Innocent Nabasa, the programs officer at SRHR Alliance Uganda said. “We need to all work together and also have more such dialogues if we are to find workable solutions.”
The Inter-University Dialogue was also held in commemoration of the World Sexual Health Day.
