Train 100 men & 40 boys in Uganda on menstruation

REPORT ON “Training 100 men & 40 boys in Uganda on menstruation” project by African Child and Youth Development Initiative (ACYDI), Uganda – November, 2021.

Introduction;

Due to the presidential directives to totally lockdown the country in a bid to prevent the spread of the Corona Virus, C-19 in March 2020, all public gathering places including schools were closed. Students have since then been confined in their homes for the 2 years now in Uganda. The government partially opened for candidate classes and final year students at the Universities. However, when the second wave hit Uganda, again the schools got closed and they have not opened until to-date.

It’s estimated that when schools opened partially in August 2020 45% of the adolescent girls in final classes in Buvuma Islands never reported back to schools as they were either pregnant or married off already.

Adolescent girls have been affected the most by this long lockdown as many of them especially those already menstruating have been married off, defiled and impregnated by close family perpetrators who have not taken any responsibility of caring for them and yet many don’t have any hopes of returning back to schools when they open in January 2022 as proposed by the government. 

A big percentage of these adolescent girls in Buvuma Island come from very poor families that cannot afford to support them access hygienic sanitary kits on top of bad practices and limited knowledge on menstruation, they end up using unhealthy materials like rags, foam mattresses among others.

They get married off as soon as they start menstruating as families seek to get dowry in form of money, animals, food etc. hence stopping their education and the cycle of poverty continues thus living a miserable life at a very tender age. Because of limited education, the adolescent girls aren’t employed anywhere and hence mostly full time house wives while others remain at their parents homes without the men who impregnated them. The Covid-19 pandemic has worsened the situation and it’s expected that more than 50% of these girls who have given birth already may not see school again.

Progress;

African Child and Youth development Initiatives has since the last report engaged different stakeholders at different levels especially men, boys and youths in dialogues to discuss ways through which the communities can come up to support young mothers/girls and prepare them ahead of school opening in January 2022. Opinion leaders, traditional, cultural, religious and political leaders have been entrusted in spreading the information on the importance of educating all children girls inclusive, supporting them to have decent menstrual cycles through improved hygiene and sanitation and also understanding the different roles each stakeholders has towards encouraging the girls to go back to school even after they have given birth to their babies. Through this dialoue, a bout 60 men, boys and youths including women have been reached at the level of influence yet over 200 community members and parents have been engaged especially those with affected girls.

ACYDI has supported the vulnerable pregnant girls with basic need including delivery kits when due to deliver for 13 young mothers, basic necessities for babies like soap, clothes, food among other.

ACYDI has also continued with psychosocial and mental health counseling and support to the girls and children affected by GBV in their families thus reaching over 26 victims.

Challenges;

Due to the limited accepted numbers of people in meetings, a few people are being targeted on top of discussions in the villages and door-to-door or Case-by-case scenarios where ACYDI team meets a family of the affected girls.

ACYDI has faced financial challenges since most of the corporate and individual donors who used to support our work were affected by the pandemic which caused business closure and yet we haven’t been able to get any new donors. This affected so much of the facilitation to our field team of volunteers

Parents and communities which had started changing have backslid since we could not reach them timely with community sensitization about menstruation and girls support due to restrictions.

However, as public gatherings have opened and schools yet to open, the team will continue with the community dialogues, meetings and sensitizations as always done before.

We thank you our donors for your generous support and we promise not to disappoint your giving hand.

From Robert Kikonyogo,

On behalf of African Child and Youth Development Initiative (ACYDI), Uganda.

REPORT ON “Training 100 men & 40 boys in Uganda on menstruation” project by African Child and Youth Development Initiative (ACYDI), Uganda – July, 2021.

 Introduction;

In such a hard time when Uganda undergoes a second wave of the corona virus, a second lockdown has been imposed since the beginning of June and became stricter with curfew and much strong movement restrictions from mid-June. Schools and other community gatherings like churches, mosques, markets and meetings are always closed first to curb the spread of the virus.

In such a time of continued lockdown, many girls are locked down with their big brothers, fathers and other male relatives who are potential perpetrators for these girls. Hence, a big risk to all forms of harassment and violence which leads to unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections HIV included for the adolescent girls.

 Many of the parents lost their jobs which were the sources of income hence increased poverty yet they have to feed the families and take care of their children. The poor parents who had started understanding menstruation and supporting their girls through their periods have started going back to the bad and poor practice of either stopping the support or even to the worst giving their girls away to those men with money in exchange of food, money and other material things that can get them through the lockdown. Parents especially men look at menstruation as a sign of maturity for a girl and readiness for marriage and producing of babies.

This calls for more efforts to sensitize the communities so that instead the men and boys continue supporting the menstruating girls to get access to safe and hygienic menstrual materials and also protect them from perpetrators of harassment and abuse of all kinds.

Menstruation and menstrual hygiene management still remain a taboo in most of the communities as it’s being taken as women and girls only issue.

Actions taken so far:

• Currently, the team at ACYDI is engaged in a door to door campaign to families with adolescent girls assessing their situations and encouraging them to support these during their periods and the parents to be open enough so that their girls can inform them in case of any form of harassment to them on time before the perpetrators run away.
• As the students were prepared to report back to schools after the first lockdown and through the period of March to mid-June 2021 before strict lockdown, ACYDI held 5 community dialogues on issues of menstrual health, adolescent reproductive health and the team sensitized the communities of over 250 people about menstrual health management, its impact on girl child education and how each of the stakeholders starting from parents, brothers, sisters, local councils can support. Many people came to discover how bad they have been to the girls and women without knowing while over practicing myths.
• There was distribution of scholastic materials worth $30 for each of the 100 students including books, pens, pencils, and mathematical sets, long rulers for the vulnerable girls & boys who were in classes allowed to attend school. 100 pupils (70 girls and 30 boys) in different classes from 3 partner schools in the island were supported hence $3,000.     

Challenges;

-          The island nature of our community geographically limits us from reaching out to most villages where poor menstrual health practices are more prominent. It requires some much money for boat hire to cross the waters from one village to the other.

-          Due to the continued restrictions caused by corona virus, very few people can be met in the meetings hence limiting the reach of the menstruation & adolescent’s reproductive health message to the intended coverage by the planned time.

-          The new covid-19 wave caused a second lockdown which has limited us from reaching out to schools and communities as planned

-          Limited financial resources as individuals and corporate donors reduced and/or stopped contributing as many lost jobs and businesses respectively.

 Way forward

As the lockdown gets lifted, we plan to go on to train on menstruation and pads making in communities since schools aren’t yet to open.

Training on income generating activities for girls and women to be able earn a living since most of their parents lost jobs