Nankunda, the change maker

Renitah Kajomberere is a Senior Three student at Uganda Martyrs’ College Ssonde. She first met Hope Nankunda Mwijuka, the Executive Director of Health Promotions and Rights Watch Uganda in 2016 when she was called out to join other girls from her class for a “girl’s meeting”.

“At that meeting, we were taught about menstruation and how to manage it so it does not interfere with our studies. It was information I hadn’t got from my parents,” recounts the 14-year-old.

At the time she met Mwijuka, Kajomberere only had one disposable sanitary towel left and she was worried about where she would get others to take her through the rest of the term.

“My mother always referred me to my father for pads, and my father who would send me back to her,” Kajomberere says. Mwijuka provided the school girl with two packs of reusable pads, which provided such relief like only Kajomberere could understand.

This year on November 2, Mwijuka, an adolescent counsellor, was recognised by Girls Not Brides (GNB), a global partnership working to end child marriage. Her recognition came as a result of nomination by strangers as a Ugandan change maker in her efforts to address girl-child issues, under her organisation, Health Promotion and Rights Watch Uganda (HPRW-U.)

GNB Uganda is part of the global partnership and the alliance currently has 60 child rights organisations working collectively in different parts of Uganda, of which HPRW-U is a member.

Member organisations work on issues of child protection, economic empowerment of families, education and engaging policy makers as well as community mobilisation to address issues of child marriage and teenage pregnancy.

“Nankunda’s work is more of a passion. When she joined Girls Not Brides alliance two years ago, she spoke with passion and was already doing work in the community. She would meet to counsel and talk to girls in different communities about different issues. She later joined the steering committee of GNB representing Kampala,” says Moses Ntenga, Chairman of GNB Uganda.

He adds; “Her work with the girls is what the alliance is interested in because it effects the worldwide change we hope to have.”

Mwijuka’s recognition came with an invitation to Netherlands by GNB where she took part in discussions, which among other things addressed the issues of stakeholders doing similar work and how the government can get involved in fighting child marriage.

Her inspiration
Mwijuka’s inspiration comes from when she was a child. She became fatherless at four, a time she recalls as tough. She was able to go through school with help from an uncle.

“It was very difficult for my only sister who became a victim of teenage pregnancy at 14. There could have been many reasons that caused that but I think one of them was lack of guidance and care and I did not like it at all.

At one time, I said to myself that I would make sure no girl ever went through the same,” she narrates.

“She completed school, got married and is happy but the dent of having a child at 14 still remains. It was a touching moment for me. I always feel very sorry for any girl out there who goes through the same. It’s happening today everywhere and that is where I come in to save the few I can, maybe other people will join along the way.”

How she does it
To curb teenage pregnancy, Mwijuka says it requires that every girl stays in school, which she believes is the safest place for them. But this, she has noticed, is sometimes frustrated by a lack of sanitary towels. “Menstruation is not a choice. It is something girls must face.

So many times, they are forced to drop out of school because they don’t want to deal with the shame and humiliation from boys. They eventually fall pregnant because maybe a man has promised them money,” she explains.

To do her share in keeping girls in school, Mwijuka endavours to reach as many as she can with sanitary towels.

She seeks people with a shared vision with whom she helps orphaned vulnerable girls with academic potential. “But most people think you should do such a thing for a relative and it takes some real challenge to convince some people to come on board.

Some people have said my efforts are a waste of time but my vision is to see every girl child complete school and thrive. I may not reach the extent I want but the little I do can make a difference,” Mwijuka shares about some of her challenges.

She has sometimes had to dig into her savings, therefore, but has also garnered support from friends and organisations including Together Alive Health Initiative, Life Ministry Uganda and National Organisation for Peer Educators (NOPE).

Today, she supports girls in schools in Mukono, Wakiso, Bushenyi, Mbarara and Kampala, and hopes she can reach more rural children too.

“There are girls I have been able to return to school because I provided them with sanitary pads, and that is what I consider success. Maybe they would be married off by now if I had not walked into their lives,” she narrates.

About the Change Maker nomination, she says it was humbling to know there are people who appreciate what she does.

About HPRW-U
Health Promotions and Rights Watch Uganda started in 2012 but was formerly registered in 2014.

It works to strengthen the health systems in Uganda with strong emphasis on menstrual hygiene management, sexual reproductive health education, guidance and counseling for adolescents, advocacy, and primary health care.

Their programmes run through schools and communities. HPRW-Uganda is the Central Region Coordinator for Girls Not Brides Uganda.

Call to guardians
Parents to create time and talk to their children. When I go counselling in schools, I meet girls who tell me that their mothers have never talked to them about menstruation.

They (girls) say that when it happened the first time, they didn’t know what to do, while others say they used soil thinking it was a wound. If you don’t speak to your own children, someone else will.

Most likely, these other people give wrong information. She cites an example of a girl who was told that having sex would reduce the numbers she was in her period from seven to two.

The girl’s worry then was how to get the boy and get that done. Fathers can talk to their daughters and sisters too, especially if the mother figure is not around or is busy.