Help 500 young people have access to SRHR services

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In rural areas of Northern uganda particularly in Zombo district,access to sexual reproductive health Rights commodities,age appropiate right information and service upake has been challenging despite efforts in place by the local actors.This has always been exacerbated by the very poor socio-economic background,seasoned cultural barriers and myths,gender norms/stereotypes,high iliteracy rates on sexual reproductive health rights,continious and prolong stockout of  commodities in the nearby government aided facilities,which impedes efforts to protection of indiduals' sexual rights by the community resulting into continious cycles of stigma and discrimination.

Key statistics driving hardwork towards our 2025 goal on SRHR

• Maternal Mortality Rate: Nationally,207 deaths per 100,000 live births (2024 data),now declining in our communities due to the strong commitment of our team in advocating for hospital births and skilling of traditional birth attendants.
• Teenage Pregnancy: Approximately 23.5% to 25% of girls aged 15-19 have begun childbearing.Now with our community centered approach,our local communities now embraces the local context in fighting teenage pregnancy.
• Modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR): The government's goal is to increase the mCPR for all women from 30.4% in 2020 to 39.6% by 2025.We are still committed to achieving this goal working closely with the rural communities and the lower level local government
• Unmet Need for Family Planning: The goal is to reduce the unmet need for contraception for all women from 17% in 2020 to 15% by  2025.
• Total Fertility Rate: The fertility rate for 2024 was 4.33 children per woman, with a projected decline to 4.23 by 2025,This yet what we commit to achieving within a months time/by the end on 2025.
• HIV Prevalence: 5.4% among adults aged 15-49 years.
• • Averted unintended pregnancies: A program helped avert 27,291,nationally,we also demonstrated our strong commitment to this by providing age appropiate sexual reprductive health rights information to young people in rural communities in Zombo district.
    unintended pregnancies.
  • Skilled birth attendance: The number of births attended by skilled health personnel in health facilities within our area of operation rose from
    50% to nearly 75 % due to the maternal health advocacy campaign under this program
    . 
  Youth and communities Empowerment 
  • Increased access to services: Youth-friendly corners in health facilities within the area of our operation have seen an increase in young people seeking SRHR services from about
    10-40 per month in some locations.
  • Education and life skills: Programs has enabled us to provide free comprehensive sexuality education and SRHR training to 200 of young people, enabling them to make informed decisions.
  • Peer education: Training youth as peer educators helps them to confidently counsel their peers on SRHR matters within their communities,making it easier to sustainan the project knowledge in the rural communities.
  • Community-led initiatives: The use of models like "Her Spaces" in remote areas of zombo district provides safe spaces for young girls to learn about puberty and other related changes from the "expert Aunts", where under this project we trained 15 to help train the adolescents in their communities
  • Economic empowerment: Training in skills like soap making and reusable sanitary pad and other eco-friendly activities like mushroom cultivation provides alternative income creation helps to empower individuals and increase access to financial inclusion and  to menstrual products. 
  Addressing social and cultural barriers 
  • Shifting social norms: Successful programs have contributed to transforming social norms, attitudes, and behaviors related to SRHR through meaningfull engagement with stakeholders,including parents,clan leaders and lower levels religious leaders, local councils.
  • Engaging parents and teachers: Engaging parents and teachers is crucial for creating a supportive environment and ensuring the success of SRHR programs.
  • Legal and policy support: Legislation and policies supporting SRHR, combined with community ownership, are essential for challenging traditional norms, though this has been a great challenge to us due to financial limitation.
  • Advocacy and partnerships: High-level buy-in from formal, traditional, and faith-based institutions has been critical for the sustainability of SRHR programs,though we practiced this at lower levels,we strongly believe having it at institutional levels can be massive and more productive.

• SUCCESS STORY OF *ANNET*
• Phase one 
  • "It all started when I took a bold step to recieve modern contraceptive(3 months injectable) in an open space from the nearby government health facility,this was because I never wanted to get pregnant while in school.when this which I thought was a secret leaked,it spreaded like a wild desert fire.The entire community earmarked me as an immoral girls, bad example to others and a disgrace to the family,this destroyed my reputation,ruined my dignity and sent me into depression since my remote community pursuaded my mates and other children never to associate with me anymore because Iam an immoral girl,I felt neglected,discriminated and stigmatized all the time.I looked for who to speak to and no one including my parents were available for me,simply because  I disgraced them by this act which I thought would prevent me from teenage pregnancy and subsequent school drop out and early marriage.
  • Phase two of the story.
  • Two months later I counselled myself silently,gathered my broken pieces and returned to the facility seeking alternative solutions to this from the service provider, only to find out that the Reproductive Healthcare service providers only visits the facility to provide services on  seasonal basis(Mobile clinic),not stationed at the facility, in desperation I asked the healthcare service provider on duty to extract the medicine from my system if there's away so that I could get back to my parents and my community,convince them that my body is contraceptive free perhaps I would be reconciled to them and possibly regain my reputation,dignity, mates and friends.That alternative could hardly work out.
  • Phase three of the story.When all my alternatives were burnt out,I accepted my fate,eagerly counting days to see when my 3 months would elapse so that I would be completely free from what I called as a mess in life,fortunately there came a day of bright light in my life when Hope Vineyard Foundation Uganda team of volunteers reached my lower level community were no organization has ever reach in history,educationg the mass,giving right information on Sexual Reproductive health commodities,services and age appropiate information,projecting statistics on teenage pregnancy and mentioning access to SRHR by young people as one of the vital means of ending teenage pregnancy,child marriage and the hight rate of school drop out in the district,I felt as if some one took of a big load from my heart and a heavy log of wood off my shoulder,From that point I became a champion in my vilage and now I help many young people in my community to make independent decisions on access and usage of contraceptives,This was a great breakthrough,a real dawn of light in my community"

                      "WITH SINGULAR VOICE WE CAN CHALLENGE THESE BARRIERS

Thanks to generous donors like you who has been an integral part of  this incredible journey on community centered Sexual Reproductive health and Rights advocacy.This has been an eye catching challenge for decades now,hindering  grassroot communities from development despite numerous interventions displayed by other organizations and other actors,today our tremendous work uniquely testifies of our comprehensive community based  Sexual Reproductive Health advocacy, using a dignified approach of.

1.Providing quality education and information on Sexual Reproductive Health,this is accurate and age appropiate Right information to the consumers.

2.Availability and accessibility of commodities,age appropiate information and services to the marginalized community at thre lower community levels.

3.Respect for autonomy and rights to ensure young people and women at the lower level community levels are able to make informed decisions regarding their individual reproductive Health and rights.

4.Challenging and eliminating harmful gender norms, practices like Gender based violence,genital mutilations,and other stereotypes that limits individual opportunities of access and choice to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights.

5.Investing in Baseline,Midline and endline research to identify information,access and services gap,which will guide on formulating the most effective and equitable interventions.

The community expressed only gratitudes and satisfaction with our high levels of engagement and earnestly long for our phase two(2) return,citing that other indigenous organizations have only been limiting their services to big trading centres and towns,marginalizing them as the only minorities whose dwellings are neither in the urban or even semi-urban settings.But thanks to Hope Vineyard Foundation Uganda that has become the first ever organization to reach out to them at the the marginalized minority community(The lowe level community).

TESTIMONY OF TRACY,P.6 PUPIL.

"There are many hinderances to the access of Sexual Reproductive Health services,commodities and right informations,I thank God that we are finally  now seing light dawning through the open trainings that Hope Vineyard Foundation Uganda offer to the local communities,this is truly a barrier breaker to stigma and discrimination,because most of our parents,religious leaders  and the local communities critisize teenagers, believing that its a taboo for unmarried teenage girls to use family planning beacuse it promotes immorality and loss of dignity forgeting that with or without access to SRHR commodities,right information and services,adolescents keeps on engaging into unprotected sexual activities resulting into high rate of HIV transmission,teenage pregnancies and subsequent school drop out.Iam glad the light is now shining at the lower levels of our communities and schools"

TESTIMONY OF GLADYS,P.6 PUPIL.

"I have seen the love and witnessed the exceptional passion that Hope Vineyard foundation Uganda has for girls and women and the lower level community,primary school learners who suffers illegal vilence, divorce,Gender based violence and loss of dignity due to ignorance,now i know that ignorance has been our weakness,but with knowledge,power has come"

TESTIMONY OF MR.ALI,a clan leader.

"I thought i knew because most people consulted me over Reproductive Health and Rights matters at traditional levels,but today i have discovered that I poisoned my people and my community with wrong and violence agitating informations,I have changed  today and sincerely apologise to you all"