Govt takes child marriage, early pregnancy fight to schools

By Paul Kiwuuwa 
                         
Government is sending out trained counselors in reproductive health to schools to talk to students, pupils, teachers and parents on the dangers of increasing rate of child marriages and early pregnancies countrywide.

Everlyne  Anite, the state minister for youth and children affairs, said the  counselors and health workers will talk to targeted groups countrywide, to find out the causes of the vice and offer solutions in  different schools.

"The program involves making outreaches and camping in schools; talking directly to the targeted groups. We want the new plan to monitor the youth and also teach them do the rights things at the right time," Anite said."

The plan dubbed "End the child marriage and teenage pregnancy strategy," jointly implemented by Government and United Nations  Children  Fund (UNICEF) has started in districts of Gulu, Lango Arua, West Nile and Karamoja region and will spread to central and western regions.

Anite was Monday addressing the press at Media Center in  Kampala on the International Day of the girlchild 2015.

The day, commemorated every October 11, was under the theme "The power of the adolescent girl vision for 2015."

The day is marked annually by member countries of the United Nations, in conformity with the United Nations General Assembly in recognition of girls' rights and the unique challenges girls face worldwide and provides strategic interventions aimed at empowering the girlchild.

"Early initiation of sex and lack of reproductive health information supported with services are said to be the leading drivers of adolescent pregnancy, according to Assistant commissioner Children Affairs ministry of Gender, James Kaboggoza,.

"Poverty has been reported to fuel the prevalence of child marriage in many communities in Uganda and girls may be conserved as economic assets from which families can gain wealth, "added Kaboggoza.

The 2013/ 2014 ministry of Health report indicates that 25% of the Ugandan teenagers become pregnant by the age of 16.  About 49% are married before their 18th birthday.

Anite said government ensures that adolescent girls receive information and services related to reproductive health to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and gender based violence.

She emphasized the role of Government to keep adolescent girls free from violence, prevent and protect them from all forms of gender based violence, abuse, and exploitation, and ensure those who experience violence receive prompt protection, services and access to justice.

According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2013 /214, one in every four teenage girls between 15 and 19 was found pregnant.

The Population Secretariat indicates that of the 1.2 million pregnancies recorded in Uganda annually, 25 per cent of these are teenage pregnancies.

According to the Uganda Demographic Health survey 2011, about 14 per cent of young women and 16 per cent of young men had their first sexual encounter before the age of 15 while 57 per cent of young women had their first encounter before the age of 18