How safe spaces in school help girls to realise their dreams

In 2020, the Health Adolescents and Young People (HAY) programme by Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in collaboration with the University of Calgary in Canada started a programme to improve adolescent and young people’s health through comprehensive, inclusive sexual and reproductive health in the districts of Rubirizi, Bushenyi and Ntungamo in southwestern region.

Among the interventions by this programme was creating safe spaces in schools and health facilities for adolescents and young people to easily and openly express the sexual, reproductive health and other related challenges they face.

Ms Rachel Beyagira,the acting assistant commissioner –health services in the Ministry of Health, said creating conducive and safe environment for adolescents and young people remains key in addressing sexual and reproductive challenges especially teenage pregnancies.

“Uganda remains among the top 10 countries with highest cases of teenage pregnancies, this is the challenge we have been grappling with for more than 20 years. Teenage pregnancy in our country has stagnated at 24 percent. This is not good and as a country, we come out with urgent solutions to address this including having a safe and conducive environment where these young girls can freely express their psychosocial challenges,” she said.

She explained that at these safe spaces, the adolescents and young girls talk about challenges that could have led them to become teen mothers and eventually leave school, but also those who are already pregnant become confident to soldier on with education because of the counselling they receive.

Mr James Rukaijakare, the head teacher of St Michael High School, Rugazi in Rubirizi District said before the introduction of safe spaces at his school they would on average find 30 young girls pregnant per pregnant test, and he quickly added that this has tremendously reduced to now between 1-2 per test partly because of the safe spaces at this school.
For example, he noted that one of the best performing students recently in Uganda Certificate of Examinations (UCE) was a girl who fell pregnant before sitting her exams.

“She opened up, received counselling and we also talked to her parents just before exams,” he explained.
He added that previously, they would treat challenges faced by students such as teenage pregnancies and even those that would lead them to this like sexually immorality openly at the assemblies, in dormitories which would make the girls emotionally tortured, embarrassed and eventually drop out of school.

He, however added that because of these safe spaces, the girls talk of challenges that could have led them to become pregnant like parents forcing them to get married for financial and material gains.
Prof Jerome Kabakyenga, the HAY principal investigator and also a senior lecturer of public health at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), said adolescents and young people lack an environment where they can open up freely.

“Most issues of adolescents and young people are not satisfactorily addressed. This is partly why teenage pregnancies are high and other related problems such as drug abuse. But we have realised that these challenges can be addressed through safe spaces,” Prof Kabakyenga said.
He noted that because of socio-cultural challenges, adolescents and young people remain exposed to vulnerability including early marriage in exchange for dowry and failing to provide the basic needs.

The district health officer Rubirizi Dr Sete Tibenda, said they managed to reduce teenage pregnancies in the district because of the safe spaces HAY initiated.

“Adolescents and young people face challenges in life but they lack avenues to express these. When the Health Adolescents and Young people programme introduced safe spaces, teenage pregnancies reduced for example teenage pregnancies in the district in 2021 stood at 23 percent but by the end of last year it reduced to 18 percent,’’ Dr Tibenda said.
Most of the young girls get pregnant because their parents are absent , shy or arrogant to discuss with them sexual and reproductive issues.