Education ministry involving boys in sanitary pads making, says official
What you need to know:
On August 27 this year, the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, passed a resolution urging government to establish and implement policies and strengthen existing laws to stop teenage pregnancies in Uganda.
Boys are playing a bigger part in reproductive health fight by interesting themselves in making sanitary pads used by their female colleagues, a senior education official has said.
Mr Henry Semakula, the Senior Education Officer, Guidance and Counselling/ Assistant Coordinator Health- HIV unit, revealed that boys now days are more active in the making of sanitary pads than girls.
“As the ministry, we have interested boy to also make sanitary pads for their female colleagues and we now have more boys making sanitary pads than girls,” Mr Semakula said at a workshop in Kampala yesterday by Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development.
Mr Semakula also said as the fight against teenage pregnancy goes on, the blame on who impregnates the school going girl children shouldn’t only be apportioned to teachers at school but also to men in societies from where they come from.
“Teachers are always blamed for sexually harassing female students but we forget the societies they come from. In the mornings, when they girl child is jumping onto a boda boda to come to school, men are closely watching her. Even in our churches, they are no longer safe,” Mr Semakula said during a plenary session held by different stakeholders on how best they can safe guard the girl child.
On August 27 this year, the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, passed a resolution urging government to establish and implement policies and strengthen existing laws to stop teenage pregnancies in Uganda.
The passing of the motion, was to acknowledge that absence of a robust stream lined government strategy to establish and implement national policies, strategies and programmes on reproductive health and sexuality education to eradicate teen pregnancies as well as weak relevant laws against cultural practices that encourage child marriages, have greatly contributed to the challenge of teenage pregnancy.
Uganda has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Sub-Saharan Africa with over 25 percent pregnancies among teenagers (15-19 years), registered every year.
Child pregnancies increased to 25 percent as reflected in the 2016 Uganda Demographic Health Survey report of September 6, 2018.
