As part
of the Global Fund for Children project: advancing the dignity of vulnerable
children and youth that aims at equipping out of school conflict affected girls
with livelihood, apprenticeship, entrepreneurship and reproductive health and
providing in school conflict affected girls with psychosocial support and
mentoring, counseling, reproductive health which help in raising girls’
confidence, awareness about STDs/HIV/AIDS and early pregnancies and reducing
the effects of trauma caused by the conflicts .
RIC-NET
carried out a one day reproductive health session which took place at
Bundibugyo e-society center and brought 8 girls to the training. The session
was facilitated by Mr. Kombi Godfrey on 16th Feb 2015.
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| some of the girls after the reproductive health session |
The facilitator
took girls through the following elements of reproductive health:
Reproductive Health Rights
Under
this topic, the facilitator engaged participants in discussions on reproductive
health rights and informed them that as youth, they are entitled to these
rights during marriage. These are: a right to freedom from cultural practices such as
Female Genital Mutilation, right to quality sexual life, right to information
on contraceptives, right to safe abortion, right to child spacing, right to sex
without coercion among others. These topics were further explained by the
facilitator to generate meaning to the participants.
Benefits of Reproductive health Education plus its sources
The
facilitator shared with participants on benefits of reproductive health
education and this was after participants had been asked to share their
knowledge on this topic and stressed that they had learnt new terms such as
female genital mutilation. The facilitator had shared with them what female
genital mutilation meant and reasons for its being a barrier to women’s rights.
Participants
were asked about sources of reproductive health education and services such as
family planning, counseling antenatal and postnatal care. They had this to
share: hospitals, health radio talk shows such as straight talk. In addition,
the facilitator shared with them others:
NGOs, seminars, health centres.
Under
this topic, the facilitator reminded participants on seeking reproductive
health services from health centres in addition to the already mentioned
sources. This is because youth thrust their peers who in most cases hardly have
accurate information.
Sexually Transmitted Infections
For
basic understanding of Sexually Transmitted Infections, its symptoms, causes
and preventive measures, participants were subjected to a video on STI such as
HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis and Chlamydia. The video educated them on risk
taking behaviors such as clubbing and taking alcohol. Though their attention
had a bit been disrupted by hunger, exposing them to the video improved their listening
and communication skills.
During
discussions, the facilitator advised participants on seeking medical treatment
in scenarios they identified themselves with any symptom of STI. He went ahead in linking sexually transmitted
infections to HIV/AIDS where he told participants that a person suffering from
STI was at a higher risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and a person suffering from
AIDs had higher chances of contracting STIs due to the immune system being
invaded by the deadly disease HIV/AIDS. For those sexually active, they were to
seek medical treatment together with their partners in cases where one or both
partners had an STI.
The
facilitator shared with participants on effects of Sexually Transmitted
Infections such as leading to blockage of the fallopian tube, putting one at a
risk of acquiring cancer such as cervical cancer. In addition, the facilitator
informed participants that sexually transmitted infections were not only
contracted trough penetrative sex but also anal and oral. Participants were
facilitated on this element with the help of visual aids where they watched
videos of some STDS.
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