Ntale tips youth on talent exploitation

Musician Irene Ntale crowned Miriam Namaganda winner of the Ni-Yetu Kampala music and drama competition organized to end teenage pregnancy and child marriage.

The competition that drew participants from a cross section of young artistes from Kampala and its suburbs was organized by Plan International Uganda in conjunction with Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), focusing on drawing the attention of stakeholders and the youth to join hands and fight to curb the rampant teenage pregnancy and child marriages in urban settings.

The competition dubbed 'Ni-Yetu Youth Project', involved searching for the best behavioural change music, looking for talents that could use music and drama to portray messages geared towards condemning abuse of children's rights through early marriages and pregnancies.

The campaign that will be duplicated in different regions in the country was about using music and drama to create awareness using music by talented individuals and supporting talent development of young people in singing especially songs that advocate for adopting positive behaviour change.

Ntale who worked with a team of judges from different NGOs waited for the audience to scale down the participants from ten to six from whom she declared Namaganda winner, with a plaque and cash prize of sh500,000.

First runners-up, Prossy Iga received shs300,000 and a plaque followed by Harmonics Uganda, a group of talented youth who received shs200,000.     

Apart from the music and drama, the participants aimed at depicting the situation of adolescent girls in Kampala city and what they wanted the authorities including KCCA and government to address and their roles in ensuring that youth who fall victim to sexual abuses get access to the required services.

Ntale, who also performed for the audience encouraged fellow youth to continue exploiting their talents and use them to advocate for their rights. She hailed Plan International Uganda and its partners for coming up with strategies to protect young people and for providing them with a platform to express issues that concern them.  

The Ni-Yetu campaign, with funding from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) also seeks to empower young people with correct knowledge; attitude and skills to enable them make informed decisions regarding their sexual reproductive health and rights.

Namaganda will get full sponsorship of her music production including audio and video.

The assistant commissioner for children affairs in the ministry of gender, labour and social development Mondo Kyateeka said that government does not want to see children in the labour ward unless they are being born, but not as mothers.

He said it was one of the most barbaric acts for a man to make a child pregnant and asked the public to join the campaign to end child marriage and pregnancy.

He appealed to the youth to always call 116, a toll free line that was dedicated to the protection of children to let their issues be addressed. 

Harriet Mudondo, director gender and community development at KCCA also attended the function and said the authority had put youth friendly services at major health centres in the different divisions.