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TEREGO - Sonny Amida, a 31-year-old South Sudanese from Ocea village in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement, has been on the streets for the past six years after arriving as a refugee in 2017.

Amida, who lives with her disabled uncle and elderly wife, also had five of her own children three of whom have since died, says she was forced to engage in promiscuous behaviour due to hardships trying to fend for the vulnerable family.

“When we arrived at the settlement, the food given could not be enough for the household that has over 10 people and there was no one to support since I was the only able person but without anything to do,” Amida says.

However, Amida’s fortunes are fast changing after joining a group of young women and teenage mothers called Destiny Women Group Ocea says she has since left being promiscuous from mid-last year as she has learnt some skills to fend for the family other than engaging in unbecoming behaviour.

“Though I was initially getting sh10,000 or sh20,000 daily, it was helping me a lot since that was the only option to support the family but when I joined this group, I was trained on savings and business skills and I since started a business of selling boiled eggs which is generating for me income and the profit I save in the group and I am seeing a change in my life,” she adds.

Amida is one of the beneficiaries of a makeway project implemented by the Alliance of Women Advocacy for Change (AWAC) that targeted teenage mothers, young women and sex workers in the Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement zones of Ofua and Ocea.

The project focused on creating safe spaces for marginalised teenage girls and young women in amplifying advocacy skills, social accountability and demands for health services and economic empowerment.

The projects helped to create safe spaces for adolescents and young women both in the community and at the nearby health facilities where they can confidently discuss the issues affecting them with their peers and service providers.

Likewise, Sylvia Musibega, a 22-year-old Kenyan refugee and a single mother of one child, says she has realised a big change after the introduction of the Makeway project since young adolescents and young women can no longer fear visiting health facilities.

The senior clinical officer Ocea Health Centre III, Clement Lwate remarks. (Credit: Robert Adiga)

“We did not have a private room to discuss our challenges and right now, youth are not fearing to go to the health facility for sexual reproductive health services because they know that there is a safe space. As a person, I never knew about savings and through the Destiny Women group, I started a small business selling groundnut and simsim paste in the market after being trained on savings where I can earn over shillings 50,000 in a week and I save some portion in our savings group from July last year, I now longer ask my mother for anything and my child is feeding well,” Musibega says.

According to her, through the project, they have been able to convince many of their friends to join in the safe space where they discuss pertinent sexual issues affecting them.

Reducing on complications

Micheal Ssemakula, the Makeway project manager with AWAC, says the project was anchored on three key interventions: Human rights empowerment of vulnerable young girls, integrated health care services and economic resilience.

He says the programme was able to reach over 400 people through the capacity building of the stakeholders at the community and health facility levels.

The senior clinical officer of Ocea Health Centre III, Clement Lwate, appreciates the project for the timely intervention in the provision of safe spaces and sexual reproductive health services the facility records an unprecedented number of teenage pregnancies during antenatal services.

According to him, teenage pregnancies have often come with complications that require referral to Arua Regional Referral Hospital.

Amida is one of the beneficiaries of a makeway project implemented by the Alliance of Women Advocacy for Change (AWAC) that targeted teenage mothers, young women and sex workers in the Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement zones of Ofua and Ocea. (Credit: Robert Adiga)

Mary Martin, the community-based facility and women leader at Ocea zone recalls the battle they have been fighting in reducing the number of teenage pregnancies as she lauds the intervention for significant behavioural changes among adolescents and young women.

Reducing teenage pregnancies

Terego district Woman Member of Parliament Rose Obiga, during the monitoring of the makeway project, commended the significant strides made in reducing teenage pregnancies through reproductive health services and skilling in the district and appealed for the inclusion of hot community girls.

“If we only concentrate on the refugee population, this leaves the host community girls and women more vulnerable which should not be the case as they sacrificed to offer their land to settle refugees,” Obiga said.

Michael Kakembo Mbwatekamwa, the MP Entebbe Municipality challenged both the Government and development partners to accompany the skills given with necessary starting kits or capital to have a tangible impact on the beneficiaries.