By Our Reporter
SRHR Alliance Uganda has announced the 5th edition of the annual Alliance Week which is aimed at empowering young people with knowledge on sexuality health and rights.
The Alliance Week focuses on creating safe spaces for young people to engage with their leaders as well as hold them accountable for the provision of sexuality education and youth friendly services as well as advocating for an enabling environment where they can frely access these services.
Held in Mayuge last year, this year’s Alliance Week will be hosted in Bugiri district under the theme ” bridging the Gap on ending child marriages and teenage pregnancies in Uganda”.
“The purpose of the Alliance week is for members in the alliance to come together and show cause for some of the sexual and reproductive health challenges that young people are facing,”Owekmeno Charles, National Program Coordinator SRHR Alliance Uganda told media during a press briefing held on Wednesday. “This year our focus is on bridging the gap in ending child marriages and teenage pregnancies because the rate of teenage pregnancy in the country remains alarmingly high.”
According to national statistics, the current rate of teenage pregnancy in Uganda is at 25% despite efforts by government and development partners to lower this rate rate to 14% by 2020, a commitment which was made in 2011 when teenage pregnancy was at 24%.
The statistics also indicate that at least 1 in 10 girls are married off by the age of 18 and 40% by age 18 while 1 in 4 teenage girls over 15 have already given birth or are pregnant.
During the alliance week, there will also be launch of a countrywide campaign geared towards reduction of teenage pregnancy and child marriages in Uganda. The campaign dubbed “Free Zone” will specifically target LC1s to champion the fight against teenage pregnancies and child marriages.
“We believe LC1s have a direct and immediate interaction with people bat the grassroots and being the political heads of the villages they are in a better position to champion this,” Owekmeno also noted. “Their role will be to identify and report cases and where need be rescue would be victims.”
The Alliance Week will feature several activities including interschool debates, community dialogues, STI testing & treatment, sports and games among others. It will run from Monday, 28th October to Friday, 1st November with the closing ceremony featuring musical performances headlined by John Blaq.
SRHR Alliance Uganda is a consortium of like-minded organizations which include Straight Talk Foundation, Reproductive Health Uganda, Reach A Hand Uganda and UNYPA among others.
