By Andrew Cohen Amvesi
ARUA
Arua city officials are set to mark this year’s International Women’s Day celebration with the call for the community members to protect the girl-child from the dangers of teenage pregnancy and school dropout cases.
The call follows the ever-worrying number of teenage pregnancies and school dropout cases being reported in the different parts of the city.
Speaking on behalf of Arua city clerk during a press conference at Arua city council hall on Monday, 4th March, 2024, Isaac Wanje said the organizing committee has already made a decision to take this year’s women’s day celebration to Abiria primary school in Ayivu West Division due to the rampant cases of teenage pregnancy and school dropout in the area.
“The decision to take the celebration there was based on a number of factors; one of the factors is the issue of dropout of schools, teenage pregnancy among others. So, as we celebrate women’s day, those are the things we need to look at and discourage from our communities. That is why we chose that community because of the rampant cases of teenage pregnancy and school dropout cases among others,” Wanje explained.
He said as a city, they have had a number of meetings in preparation for women’s day. Wanje observed that radio talk-shows have been ongoing, they also intend to have community dialogues together with partners, have a football match on the day of celebration and also clean around the community, markets and health units as part of the main activities to mark this year’s international women’s day in Arua city.
According to Wanje, the city has come up with a budget of shs23m for women’s day which will be marked under the theme: “Inspiring Inclusion.”
“About the theme which talks about inspiring inclusion, we are very motivated about this because when you look at how we should inspire that woman at the grassroot to be inclusive in the government arena, we look at how this young girl should be able to attain education because like the saying goes, when you educate a woman, you educate a nation,” Judith Drate, the Arua city community development officer (CDO) said.
“When you educate this girl, she will delay getting married because she is in school and when she gets educated, her family will be able to have a balanced diet because she has the education on how to make balanced nutrition. Then equally she will be able to inspire her children (boys and girls) to attain the education that they require and also lastly, she will be able to provide the necessary health care for her family as the need arises,” Drate added.
In providing inclusion for women in Arua city, Drate said they have a number of programs that they have been running and one of them among others is the Parish Development Model (PDM) which has 30 percent inclusion of women in every cell regardless of whether the woman has physical disabilities or is elderly.
Drate commended all their development partners with whom they have been engaging in various areas to coordinate issues that may arise like gender-based violence, women empowerment, teenage pregnancy and forced marriages which have become rampant in the society.
She noted that as of December 2023, they had reported cases of teenage pregnancy and defilement ranging at 418, which she said might only be 20 percent of what is happening in the community.
She said a large number of these cases go unreported or are settled within the community level yet defilement is a capital offense that needs to be reported to police.
Sarah Apio, the protection officer at Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) supporting the West Nile region said during this upcoming women’s day celebration, they want to target the girl-child and Odramacaku as a location because in their meetings, it has been highlighted that there has been an increasing trend of teenage pregnancies and school dropout cases in the area as a result of participation in the labour market which has affected the girl-child education.
Similarly, Lillian Maturu, the outreach officer for the strategic initiative for women in the horn of Africa remarked that during the women’s day celebration, they intend to launch a referral pathway document together with the city council and they believe that through the document, issues of sexual gender-based violence case management and reporting will be easy because the major challenge has been lack of information.
Shamim Kamuntale, the team leader of Biosphere Foundation Uganda said in regard to the women’s day celebration, they are trying to come up with inclusive games that include the women to show their potential that they can also do it as well as advocating for women’s safe space at work places whereby women feel safe and be able to progress in their career.
