Lango social workers face hurdles in war against teen pregnancies

Social workers who are working toward ending child marriage and teenage pregnancy in Lango Sub-region say there is a risk of violence on the job.

 The rate of teenage pregnancies in Lango was as high as 28 percent in 2020, according to Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU). This means one in three girls under the age of 19 is either a mother or is pregnant, said the organisation’s executive director, Mr Jackson Chekekwo.

 Ms Christine Anono, the Lira District Community Development Officer, acknowledged that the situation in Lira is the worst.

 “The Demographic Survey of 2019 put the rate of teenage pregnancies in Lira District at 24 percent to 30 percent,” she said at a recent engagement meeting organised by Joy for Children Uganda (JFCU), a child rights organisation, in Lira City.

 The dialogue was aimed at building consensus on the importance of protecting girls’ rights, keeping them in school and delaying marriage and childbirth.

 Ms Anono said as part of the efforts to address the issues of child marriage, teenage pregnancy and child abuse, Lira District leadership developed a position paper in 2018.

 Since then, social workers have been disseminating the position paper to cultural leaders across the sub-region.

 “There was a time we held a meeting at Good News Hotel (Lira City), with all the cultural leaders. Unfortunately in that meeting, I decided to prepare a very provocative presentation to the team there,” Ms Anono said.

“As we were going for breakfast after presenting the paper, one of the cultural leaders came to me and told me ‘if you think you’re going to hold that personal, you’re going to die. Relax! You’re not going to finish that,” she added.

The community development officer said this left her disappointed.

 “It hurt me and even up to now it still hurts me because I expected the cultural leaders to come out to help us fight these teenage pregnancy and child marriage. So, even us duty bearers don’t take the issues seriously,” Ms Anono said.

 Mr Tom Onyuti, the leader of Arakodworo Clan in Lira City, said they have been sensitising the community on harmful practices such as child marriage but this has not helped matters.

 Ms Anono further revealed that some parents have now gone ahead to allow their daughters as young as 12 years old access family planning services as one of the means to reduce early pregnancies.

Challenges

 “When you go to a school, a girl comes and tells you ‘I’m on family planning but I bleed throughout 24/7. A girl of 12, 13, 14, 15 years old. It’s so painful!” she said.

 Earlier, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, asked the government not to approve the policy on the use of contraceptives among teenagers, saying such a move would be akin to legitimising sexual violence in Uganda.  “We pray that the devil doesn’t find his way and such thoughts should never come into [the] minds of our people because that is formalising defilement, that is clearly saying we have failed. We would rather strengthen the monitoring to ensure that we fight this vice [rather than] legitimizing it by giving such services and I am glad it isn’t yet a policy,” Mr Tayebwa on October 13, 2023.

 In 2017, the Ministry of Health proposed to have children as young as 10 years old access family planning services and one of the means to reduce early pregnancies among adolescents.

 Commonly known birth control methods include condoms, diaphragm, contraceptive pills, implants IUDs (intrauterine devices), sterilisation and morning-after pills.