Listening and Learning

July 26, 2019

Lily and Rashmi’s perspective:

Today, we were up bright and early at 7am to head over to Yumbe for the first day of peer educator interviews. We had a quick breakfast of bread and butter and coffee, packed up, and hit the road. The drive to Yumbe took about an hour and once we arrived in the Town Council sub-county, we met Savior, a current RAHU youth champion in the area who was applying to be a peer educator and was going to help direct us to the two more rural health centers. First, we drove out to Kei Health Center III where we only had 3 candidates to interview. After these interviews, we drove to the Kulikulinga Health Center where we interviewed more than 20 people for peer educator positions there. It was really interesting to see the variety of people who were interested in the position and how diverse their backgrounds were. It just goes to show how widespread RAHU’s influence really is. After a long day of conducting interviews and choosing candidates, we dropped Savior back off in town and returned to Arua for another night of rest. We had dinner at a local restaurant (matooke, rice, beans, greens, and chicken stew) and hit the hay early again. 

Mariam and Aayush’s Perspective: 

We reached Jinja late last night in preparation for today’s Headteachers Share101 Forum. We woke up around 7 am, ate breakfast, and headed over to the conference hall in a nearby hotel. We started off by setting up each of the seats for the attendees, including placing a schedule, annual report, and notes. As attendees started coming in, we began with the events. 

The Headteachers Forum is a gathering of headteachers (or principals) of numerous schools in the region to update and educate them on changing school health policies. The forum consisted of multiple speakers, presentations, Q&A sessions, and more. The day began with Opening Remarks from RAHU’s very own Bata, the Communications & Advocacy Manager. He gave a brief overview of RAHU’s work in the past year, as well as the Peer Educators’ roles in RAHU programs. Next, a representative from the Ministry of Education & Sports of Uganda gave a presentation on Uganda’s National Sexuality Education Framework. This document is the current structure regarding sexuality education in Ugandan schools (a digital copy can be found here https://www.education.go.ug/files/downloads/NATIONAL%20SEXUALITY%20EDUCATION%20FRAMEWORK.pdf). The framework consists of guidelines, principles, and interests that the Ugandan government hopes to achieve in regards to SRHR. With HIV and teenage pregnancy rates on the rise, it is imperative that national attention is brought to these issues as well as how RAHU can work with schools to create change. A key takeaway from the presentation surrounded around the fact that change can only be brought about by parental help. Media and foreign influence in the form of movies and videos has caused a negative impact on Ugandan youth. The presenter stressed the idea that parents’ jobs aren’t just to send children off to school, but also be positive influencers in their kid’s lives. 

Next, a peer educator named James gave his experience with youth populations in his community. In a powerful, eye opening speech, James outlined real experiences he had with students related to menstrual periods, teen marriage, and post marriage situations.

• Girls are going through menstruation around age 12, before they even learn about it in school. This causes them to be unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and uneducated with dealing with menstruation. Girls are also laughed at and embarrassed for having to leave class and travel long distances during the school day to get access to a bathroom or clean water. 
• While abstinence is the main form of preventing HIV and teenage pregnancies, many girls believe they cannot handle it. James believes the root problem lies in girls not being educated. “These girls are not being educated on how valuable their lives are. If they knew their health matters, they would take abstinence seriously.”
• If at a young age a boy impregnates a girl, both people are forced into marriage. Many boys are shamed or forced by the families to marry that girl so that society doesn’t think bad of them. This causes two parents who are not financially, mentally, or emotionally ready to start a family. 

Next, a RAHU program director and employee for the Center for Health and Human Rights Development named Annah gave a presentation on the National School Health Policy. This presentation incorporated the importance of health needs inside and outside of school, as well as how counseling girls in the case of teen pregnancies can act as positive reinforcement and a source of encouragement. One headteacher gave her reaction to teenage pregnancies at her school. In the case her student gives birth at a young age, she takes peers to visit the girl, counsel her, and show that they are all there for her. This also encourages the mother to return to school and finish a formal education.

Lastly, headteachers from across the region had the opportunity to speak and brainstorm about reasonable goals and ways to achieve them in the coming years. They created short term and long term goals for their schools that RAHU and the National Sexuality Education Framework hopes to achieve.