This Friday – September 26th – DSW along with the rest of the international community will celebrate World Contraception Day 2014. This annual worldwide campaign centers around a vision for a world where every pregnancy is wanted. DSW is a proud partner for World Contraception Day 2014, and this year we are paying particular attention to our hugely successful project GeNext Uganda: “My Life, My Future!”.
Each day this week as we head towards World Contraception Day 2014 on Friday, we celebrate a story from one of our youth champions! Today is the turn of Juliana.
Reach a Hand Uganda (RAHU) consists of a dynamic passionate and committed young team that believes in the power and the future of young people. It works with an elaborate network of peer educators and volunteers. Our main aim is to address the key issues that leave Ugandan youth vulnerable to health outcomes like, HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and unintended pregnancies.
Being a young person, I enjoy interacting with my fellow age mates and my passion is moving to several schools and carrying out outreaches. Every experience is unique because I get to learn while doing my job. It is always a good experience talking to fellow youth but there are usually challenges.
“I enjoy interacting with my age mates, I have a passion moving to schools and engaging in outreaches”
My main challenge is about the schools we visit, sometimes a school administration has a negative attitude towards sexual and reproductive health and family planning. This is mainly because they believe that messages about family planning may boost early sex in the school and this is reflected also in the attitudes of students. For example, one day I entered a class of senior 3 to pass on sex education but most of the students said they were too young to talk about sex so this is a challenge. However, when you ask students to write down their questions, you get surprised what is written down.
I have developed skills of winning over the school administration, through our RAHU office we write to the school administration asking for permission to talk to their students. Sometimes we use edutainment which most of the students like.
Juliana
I work with Reach a Hand Uganda (RAHU) as a peer educator. I am a GeNext Youth Champion.
Keep checking in each day as we catch up with one of our GeNext Uganda/World Contraception Day 2014 Youth Champions.
For more information about the GeNext Uganda “My Life, My Future” project, visit our website!
