As part of our endeavours to improve young peoples access to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) information and services in Uganda, we train young people through the Peer Educators Academy every year. At the end of the training, they go ahead to integrate lessons learned in their day to day lives.
Today, we would like to shine a light on two of our peer educators in Westnile. Palma Konyio from Adjumani district and Winnie Unziru from Moyo district.
What have they been up to since they left the academy?
For Palma, after the one year training with the Peer Educators Academy, she dived into engaging young mothers in Adjumani with timely and accurate SRHR information especially on family planning. She attests to the fact that this has helped many teenage/young mothers better plan their lives and make informed life decisions.
Along with this, she provides peer to peer counseling to young girls and boys encouraging them to avoid early marriage which often results in early and unplanned pregnancy. For Palma, a call to duty is all it takes for here to support in the implementation of youth friendly activities under the WAY programme.
Winnie’s story is not that different from Palma’s. Since she left the academy back in 2019, she has gained a lot of confidence to speak about key sexual and reproductive health issues like family planning, sexual and gender based violence plus teenage pregnancy with her community members.
She says issues such as teenage pregnancy and GBV are rampant in West Nile and being able to support in addressing them is very important to her and pertinent to her cause of being a SRHR advocate. During the lockdown, she also got an opportunity to work for organisations such as Straight Talk which have given her a platform to advance.
Palma and Winnie hope that we as Reach A Hand Uganda will continue to train more young people through the academy and equip them with the necessary skills and information so that they too can sensitize their communities to create the change we all want to see.
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