DSW is an organisation that changes lives of young people. They changed ours in more ways than one

By David Mujuni

Members of Youth Talent Exposition Development Association, a DSW supported youth Club with their friends at the youth centre.

At the time of joining Youth Talent Exposition and Development Association (YTEDA), a DSW supported youth club since 2010, we and our peers were always at high sexual risks and becoming in-nments of poverty, to which our community has became accustomed of. We did not appreciate sexual Reproductive Health and rights issues, the meaning of our lives and the importance of family planning to the economy but also to our lives and community.

Our dreams came alive however, when we enrolled to YTEDA. It gave us an opportunity to acquire peer education skills in sexual Reproductive Health, leadership, management, advocacy and entrepreneurship and to interact with DSW staff.

Just like in life, we have encountered pros and cons in our endeavors. We have interfaced with political resistance, cultural beliefs and norms, public attitude towards SRH among others.  However all these have not limited our continuous efforts in terms of political, community and government engagements” says the chairperson of the club.

“Most of us are running small enterprises and businesses, and have saved lives of young people and equipped them in make informed choices.  We have disseminated SRH information at household, community, District levels and national levels”. He added.

Apart from information sharing, we have shifted our efforts to making the environment and atmosphere friendlier for young to acquire services and information.  We managed to secure a youth corner at Mukuju Health centre IV. The corner is fully functioning, equipped with comfortable chairs and tables. It has both indoor and outdoor sports equipments which have continuously attracted and increased the number of young people that come in.

“Since the establishment of the Youth corner, we have gradually received an increased number of young people”. Said Oukum David Cyrus the District Health officer. On average we receive 40 young people per day who visit the corner. She added

The corner is 24/7 equipped with family planning commodities and services such as condoms, peer educators and information Education Communication (IEC) materials that young access at no cost. Thanks to DSW for the continuous support.

In addition, we have been able to lobby for entrepreneurship trainings for the young people from other actors such as Balloon ventures. The trainings held at the Corner are increasingly attracting young people.

To further facilitate SRH information sharing, we have established a youth parliament .The platform facilitates interfaces with government officials, religious leaders, cultural leaders on issues that affect young people.

We believe the empowerment transformed us. The community recognizes our roles and support and we are usually approached for guidance on SRH and other developmental issues in our community.

We intend to roll out our advocacy countrywide to ensure that every health facility has a youth corner for the young people to share and receive information and services about SRH.

We owe all these achievements to DSW Uganda for their support -trainings and initiatives to empower the young people like us Uganda.