Teen Girls Health & Empowerment in Uganda

The world has marked October 11^th as the International Day of the Girl. In spirit of this day we conducted a three day workshop on October 18-20, attended by 33 girls aged 12-18 from Everest College - a school nearby Shanti Uganda.

In Uganda nearly one in every two girls is married before the age of 18. As a part of our endeavor to address the needs and challenges these young girls face, the Teen Girls Workshop is a central part of our educational programs at Shanti. In the workshop girls learn about physical, reproductive and sexual health, family planning, gender roles, as well as the development of personal values, goals, and career planning.

Joan, a bright and bubbly 16 years old girl in Senior 3, was one of our remarkable participants in the workshop. In her free time, she enjoys singing, hanging out with friends, and dreams of being a surgeon when she grows up. Joan has shown great enthusiasm in attending the workshop, adding that “as a girl I feel that I am physically weak and vulnerable in my society, and I wanted to come to this workshop to learn more about physical and sexual health, and receive counselling.”

Joan adds that it is important to shed more light on the importance of respecting women’s bodies. She also enjoyed making her own personal reusable sanitary pad.

With your support, Joan and many girls have been able to be part of our trainings, and we look forward to continue with our workshops in order to be able to provide this opportunity for more girls.

We have exciting news about our Teen Girls Workshop at Shanti Uganda! The program is getting a facelift with our new Teen Girls Workshop facilitator, Gloria. Gloria has been a midwife at Shanti for four years and is very enthusiastic about taking on this new role. When asked about why she wanted to work more closely with teen girls in Luwero communities Gloria responded, “Young girls go through many changes and they don’t know how to overcome them. The young girls need to value their future. Girls need to be empowered to know that they can survive with what little they may have.”

Gloria will be working with the current Teen Boys & Girls Workshop Intern, Sabrina to revamp the curriculum and ensure the next Teen Girls Workshop is a success. The new curriculum includes an entire day dedicated to sessions about positivity and empowerment with topics such as body image, values and goal setting, building healthy relationships, and positive self-reflection. Throughout my interview with Gloria she consistently insisted, “I didn’t have a workshop like this as a teen but I wish I did because we missed much of this knowledge and skills as a teen.”

In addition to new curriculum, some important aspects of old curriculum are remaining such as the sessions about menstruation and pad making, pregnancy, STIs including HIV/AIDS, and family planning methods (contraceptive methods). Gloria’s goals for the workshop are for girls to gain necessary knowledge such as pad making, socializing, and participating in their communities while increasing their confidence and learning about the value of their future. Gloria emphasized the importance of pad making since girls often miss school during their menstrual cycle because of their lack of access to sanitary products, which greatly impacts their education and their future.

Gloria indicates that education is key to opening up the possibilities for a girl’s future. She explains, “Many girls experience early child marriage and become jobless as a result of lack of education.” The education provided at this workshop will give teen girls the knowledge and skills to have power and agency over their own lives and work towards a brighter future.

As the content of the workshop transforms, so will its teaching methods. Previously the Teen Girls Workshops were conducted mostly through lecture style learning. One of the goals of the new curriculum is to create more participatory learning opportunities for example myth and fact games about sex, pregnancy, STIs, and menstruation. Girls will also get to learn martial arts, brainstorm and demystify gender roles as a group, discuss people they look up to, and place their goals on the official Shanti Goal Setting Wall among many other activities.   

We are very excited to work with you Gloria and cannot wait to see what you bring to the Teen Girls Workshops!