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 Ssengendo.
It is a challenge penetrating churches with sexual and reproductive health and family planning messages because of the values and principles of religious institutions. As a GeNext Youth Champion I reach out to communities and big families, and have been invited by Nakatema Anglican church of Uganda to give health talks on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and family planning to the youth.
I also interact with large families, where parents are shy to talk about SRH issues with their children. Others have the opportunities to interact with their sengas (Paternal auntie) who should give these health talk.
“Working with religious institutions and families – a success story”
I always organize community dialogues with different stakeholders; in one of the dialogues, the Local Council Chairperson shared his experience of how his youngest daughter became pregnant and contracted a sexually transmitted infection. This experience has changed his perspective of the vulnerable lives of youth and he has since become a supporter of family planning services for youth and supports sexual and reproductive health dialogues between champions, parents and religious leaders.
Through the help of the community, I now can pass on information about sexual and reproductive health in churches and mosques and manage to reach more youth. At Nsangi church, the priest now organises with the GeNext youth champions every Saturday from 3:00pm-5:00pm for us to meet our peers.
Ssengendo Misaeri
I am a member of Muvubuka Agunjuse Youth Club Nsangi in Wakiso District.
