A centre where Uganda youth get friendly health services

I felt touched, shocked and sympathy finding many young pregnant girls and many young people unwell because of suffering caused by STDs like HIV/AIDs which are preventable and manageable although considered a curse in many of our communities. The interesting things were also quite many.

This was during a visit to Naguru Teenage and Information Centre (NTIC) in Kampala, Uganda with other African journalists from countries like Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, etc on Monday, 19^th May 2015. The Centre is located in an upscale Kampala area of Bugolobi.

African Journalists at Naguru Teenage Centre

However, on the other hand, the visit was interesting and quite surprising because it was new to me since I come from a rural area finding many entertaining activities like games for many young Uganda girls and boys in a health facility.

In many health facilities especially in the rural areas where I come from, many health workers are not friendly and the environment looks intimidating in addition to lack of adequate facilities like drugs which was not the case at NTIC.

The many entertaining activities are aimed at making them feel at home when accessing the health services according to one of the staff we found at the reception.  

We were ushered in the centre by the centre coordinator called Martin Byamugisha who was very friendly. I noticed many interesting things which are youth friendly like a TV screen playing the latest movies, many indoor games like darts, a big hall capable of accommodating between 50 – 70 people at a time.

The centre is also well located in a hideout just behind Kiswa Health Centre III to ensure the privacy of the young people when accessing health services.

Another interesting observation was the many condom boxes which were pinned on the notice board of the centre for the youth accessing the centre to use for free whenever they needed them.

I also found the darts board very interesting because it had all the information about the centre and the services that it offers to the youth meaning that you would ‘kill two birds with one stone’ by playing darts at the same time understanding the many services offered by the centre.

Naguru Hall for Teenagers accessing their services

Also, most of the walls at the centre were covered with posters with great pictures of celebrities like Bobi Wine taking about sexual reproductive health, like HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, condoms, etc.

Amazed by the interesting services offered by the centre, I decided to venture further and had a discussion about the centre with one of the beneficiary who had come to access treatment.

“They have good treatment for many diseases and communicate well with us, besides, I don’t need to pay any money to access services.” Said one of the Teenagers called John, not his real name

John adds, “I fear to tell my parents when suffering some diseases like gonorrhoea because they will think I play sex. However, I don’t fear sharing my problems with the staff at the centre.” 

The trip was supported by Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC) in partnership with Uganda Radio Network (URN), Initiative for Rural Development - Uganda (IRD - U)

Training of African Journalists in Sexual and Reproductive health in Kampala - Uganda

In May, 2015, Initiative for Rural Development - Uganda (IRD - U) in partnership with Uganda Radio Network (URN) and Radio Netherlands Training Center (RNTC) conducted a 2 weeks (11th - 22nd May, 2015) training African Journalists in sexual and reproductive rights in Kampala, Uganda. After the training, issues of sexual and reproductive health will be reported more objectively and they will receive a lot of media attention. Some of the issues trained in are HIV/AIDs reporting, reporting on infant mortality rates, covering issues of culture and women's health, covering issues of gender and access to health services among the most marginalised groups like rural African women and children, etc. Some of the journalists trained were from African countries like South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, etc

See below some of the photos of the training

Email; irduganda@gmail.com

About Inititiative for Rural Development - Uganda (IRD - U)

The Initiative was initiated in 2012 with an aim of promoting democracy, human rights and enterprise skills among the rural youth and women in Uganda. Uganda has a huge potential for poverty reduction with huge resources ranging from minerals, tourism, a young population to a good climate. Agriculture remains the biggest economic activity which attracts over 80% of the population either directly or indirectly employed by the sector although it is highly at subsistence levels.  Despite all its huge potential for poverty reduction, Uganda remains a poor country with a big percentage of the population surviving on less than a dollar a day because the population especially those living in the rural areas is not empowered to ensure that their resources are well utilised by leaders and technocrats entrusted with service delivery to the people.

The unemployment rate among the youth remains high due to limited enterprise skills and despite its fertile soils and good climate, the country continues to suffer widespread poverty and food scarcity.  Uganda faces widespread corruption and poor policy implementation at almost all levels of implementation. World Bank in its 2010 report estimates that between 500 to 800 million Uganda shillings is lost annually to corruption by public officials.

Widespread corruption has mostly affected rural grass roots especially the marginalised population groups of rural women and youth since it’s them who are affected most when funds meant for road construction, medicine in hospitals, market development, agricultural development is misused by public officials. 

IRD - U heavily focuses its attention on empowering the marginalised population groups of rural youth and women on issues of democracy, human rights and enterprise skills development.

Mission Statement

To empower rural youth and women improve their livelihoods through improved participation in governance, advocate for their rights and developing their enterprise skills.

Strategic Objectives

1.      To build the capacity of rural youth and women participate in governance and advocate for their rights through trainings and sensitisation. 

2.      Build the capacity of the youth and women to create wealth through enterprise training and development with a focus on agriculture and literacy trainings

3.      To empower rural women and youth use media and other ICT platforms to improve their livelihoods through trainings in citizen journalism, mobile phone technologies, mainstream media like FM radio and social media.

4.      To provide both physical and online platforms for rural youth and women to enable them fully participate in governance and advocate for their rights.

5.      To conduct appropriate research and provide consultancy services aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the institution

Program areas

1.      Transparency and Accountability Program. It will focus on empowering rural women and youth participate in governance through demanding accountability for improved service delivery for improved service delivery in key sectors like agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, etc.

2.      Human Rights Program. It will focus on empowering rural women and youth advocate for their rights especially the right to access information, health rights, media rights, gender rights and right to participate in government planning, budgeting and decision making processes.

3.      Enterprise Development Program. This will focus on training and sensitisation of rural women and youth in enterprise skills development. The key areas in this program will include financial literacy, commercial farming, market access, ICTs and entrepreneurship.

4.      Using ICTs for Development Program. This program will focus on using appropriate ICT tools for the development of marginalised communities in Uganda. It will involve the use of both traditional like radio and modern ICT tools like interactive social media tools e.g facebook, twitter, blogs, etc

5.      Consultancy and research Program. This program will focus on consultancy services in research, advocacy, institutional development, Monitoring and Evaluation and training in ICTs to generate resources for the sustainability of the institution and also building the capacities of member institutions and individuals.