By Aldon Walukamba G
Communities with little or no access to health services have received free medical care through various medical camps organized as part of Alliance Week 2021.
The week falls within the 16 Days of Activism (25th November to 10th December 2021), World AIDS Day, and Human Rights Day, which fall on December 1st and 10th, 2021, respectively.
The Alliance Week 2021 campaign targeted at least 500 people who received immunization services, family planning, maternal health services, HIV/AIDs testing and counseling, and health education. The drive was unveiled in the Kasese district in the Bwesumbu-county, but also fishing communities in Katwe, Kabatooro, and Muhokya internally displaced people were beneficiaries of the integrated sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) services.
According to Sam Mwandara, National Coordinator of Reproductive Health Uganda’s (RHU) Right Here, Right Now-2 (RHRN-2) project, “the campaign has given vulnerable communities in hard-to-reach and marginalized communities a chance to access information and SRHR commodities that were previously unheard of and inaccessible.
“The vulnerable people living in areas of Kasese district have benefited from reproductive health rights, gender-based violence counseling, family planning, cervical cancer screening, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV testing and treatment,” Mwandara said.
At least 500 people were attended to by health service providers, legal counselors, and community health teams to receive the SRHR services.
The 16 Days of Activism SRHR and family planning campaign in the Kasese district was organized by the RHU–RHRH–2 project with its seven coalition members: Hope Mbale, CEHURD, Reach a Hand Uganda (RAHU), SMUG, SRHR Alliance, RHU, and UNYPA.
The other Alliance Week 2021 consortium members under the SRHR Alliance in the Kasese district include Restless Development, NAFOPHANU, FLEP, and Straight Talk Uganda.
According to Margaret Nanyombi, SRHR Alliance Programs Manager, the week-long drive has brought SRHR services closer to vulnerable people, which will aid in reducing teenage pregnancies, sexual and gender-based violence, and, most importantly, providing and empowering young people with information about their sexuality and rights.
However, she adds that the humanitarian service organizations and the district local government need to find a way to ensure that they can supply reproductive health and rights care all year round to the underserved, especially young people.
The RHU RHRN-2 project, which targets young people aged 10 to 24, is funded by Rutgers International and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).
Janet Karuhoko, an official from SMUG, says the Alliance Week 2021 has allowed vulnerable communities to know and claim their reproductive and sexual rights that are grossly abused currently and not catered for in most Ugandan policies.
Ssenku Samuel Kimuli, Kasese district CAO, urged people to make use of Alliance Week 2021 to get free SRHR medical services and information. He guarantees that the services to be offered are of a high standard and can help Kasese people have better managed, but planned for families.
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