“Adolescents are not monsters. They are just people trying to learn how to make it among the adults in the world, who are probably not so sure themselves.” ~ Virginia Satir
In order to lessen their vulnerability, they need better access to education, life skills, and essential services.
With a population of 9 million people, adolescents account for almost a quarter of Uganda’s population. Despite this, many people’s lives are challenging. Young people struggle to attain their full potential due to poverty, HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, gender-based violence, and inadequate secondary school attendance.
Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to a range of threats.
Adolescent girls face a disproportionately high and unequal risk of obtaining HIV, accounting for two-thirds of all new HIV infections. Many females drop out of school as a result of unwanted adolescent pregnancy and early marriage. According to the Ministry of Health, 25% of Ugandan teenagers become pregnant by the age of 19.
Complicated births and abortions, which usually necessitate emergency obstetric treatment, are all too common among adolescent females. Many teen mothers, on the other hand, do not have access to basic reproductive health care and die while giving birth. With 18 mothers dying per day during pregnancy, childbirth, or both. Uganda according to INICEF has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Traditional practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) still exist in many communities. In 2013, Uganda was ranked 16th out of the top 25 countries with the greatest rate of teenage marriages. Almost every girl in the Pokot community of Amudat district (Karamoja) have been cut (FGM) to make her more “marriageable.” Both of these behaviors are damaging to women’s physical and emotional health (www.unicef.org/uganda).
Education is one of the best ways out of vulnerability
poverty, and exclusion, yet secondary education is scarce in Uganda. Only around a fifth of adolescents of the appropriate age attend secondary school. School fees and other related costs, in addition to teenage pregnancy and child marriage, are important obstacles that keep adolescent girls out of school. Another impediment to girls’ education is violence. Rather than having protective and safe learning environments, many females in schools endure sexual harassment and rape. The majority of elementary and secondary school pupils in Acholi and Karamoja had suffered sexual abuse, according to a 2013 study on gender-based violence against minors Almost every girl in the Pokot community of Amudat district (Karamoja) have been cut (FGM) to make her more “marriageable.” Both of these behaviors are damaging to women’s physical and emotional health (www.unicef.org/uganda).
Our Response
TOUCEO’s framework is helping to close the educational gender gap. In partnership with the local administration, girls’ education is fostered and coordinated. Gender-based violence, teen pregnancy, and child marriage are all addressed in the framework.
TOUCEO aims to deliver integrated and youth-friendly health information, care, and support to adolescents at risk of HIV and AIDS. This includes implementing the School Health Policy, improving access to HIV testing and TB diagnosis, preventing HIV transmission from adolescent mothers to their children, and treating and caring for adolescents with HIV and TB.
TOUCEO promotes life skills education in schools, particularly adolescent-friendly reproductive health education and HIV transmission and prevention knowledge, through a range of platforms including clubs, sports, music, dance, and theatre.
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