#PEA2020 Week 2 Newsletter

1 3 TH - 1 7 TH J A N U A R Y

W W W. R E A C H A H A N D . O R G

D AY S I X

D AY S E V E N

D AY E I G H T

D AY N I N E

WEEK TWO D AY T E N

• LEADERSHIP TRAINING • COMMUNICATION SKILLS • NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES • INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES • FUN, LAUGHTER & BE YOUNG • MENTORSHIP • SRHR INFORMATION & SKILLS • PRESENTATION SKILLS

WEEK TWO P R ESENTATI ON SKI L L S

IN T ERN SHI P O P P O RT U N I T I E S

INTRODUCTION S RH R INFO RMAT IO N & S K ILLS

We came back from the weekend with a bang!

The second week of the academy #PEA2020 kicked off with an interesting list of facilitators three of which are alumni of the Academy alumni. We started off with a recap of week one as presented by our lead facilitator Mr. Amon Mulyowa.

F U N, L AU G H T E R & B E YO U NG

M EN TO R S H IP

CO MMU NICAT IO N S K I LLS

L E ADE R S H IP T R AINING

NE T WO RK ING O PPO RT U NIT IE S

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wire Moses, the Executive Director of Peer to Peer Uganda and an academy alumnus 2014 class taught about Consent and its various forms, Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships. The interactive session also delved into what consent means in the various components of work that peer educators do such as research, relying on SRH information and rape.

Kabuye Bashir, an academy alumnus 2015 class and Amon Mulyowa took the participants through a session on life skills such as skills of living with oneself and skills of living with others self-esteem, creative thinking, effective communication and many others. The participants had a group exercise on how the different skills are important and when to apply them.

#PEA2020 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

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he opening conversation was about Mental Health guided by Dr Evas Kansiime-Atwine, a professional counsellor and therapist from International Centre for Family Care (ICFC) and Nathan Kamara 2016 peer educator and team leader at Mental Health Focus They addressed the stigma around mental health which they elaborated, includes; Our emotional, psychological, and social well-being.

Ibrahim Nkonge our Events & Experiential Officer, shared on understanding Social behaviour change. He described behavioural change as any transformation or modification of human behaviour. It may also refer to Behavior change (public health), a broad range of activities and approaches which focus on the individual, community, and environmental influences on behaviour. With the participants inquiring about indepth insight on the topic Ibrahim further dissected the 6 stages of behavioural change as Pre-contemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, Maintenance and Advocacy.

The day was rounded up with a session on sign language by Sulaiman Balinya from Light for the World, an organisation focused on empowering people living with disabilities. From the session, it was emphasized that It is important to keep eye contact when making sign language with a deaf person, position your body well in a way that is easy for the deaf person to see you as you make sign language. Avoid touching body parts of deaf people as a way of communicating, lightly tap their shoulder to get their attention.

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#PEA2020 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

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hadia Nansasi, a Youth Officer at Mariestopes Uganda led the first session on contraception and Family Planning methods. The session tackled indepth contraceptive methods, how they work, their numerous side effects and the common myths and misconceptions surrounding Family planning and contraceptive use. Shadia focused on equipping the peer educators class with key facts that will enable them counter any myths and misconceptions amongst their peers and other members of the community.

The Peer educators were tasked to discuss in their groups, each group was assigned a contraceptive method which they discussed and presented to the rest of the class. They presented on Contraceptive methods like Exclusive breastfeeding, Contraceptive Pills, Injectables, Implants, Condoms, Intrauterine Devices (IUD).

The highlight from the session was definitely the presentations which surprisingly showed that these young people actually had a lot of information on the available contraceptive methods.

#PEA2020 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

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e kicked off with a much needed discussion on Maternal Health in Uganda.

The country’s maternal mortality ratio is one of the highest in the world. We are in the red with 343 mothers per 100,000 births die during childbirth.

The session led by Joseph Balikudembe took the peer educators through the causes of this high maternal mortality. The class explored in-depth issues like poor quality antenatal services, the 3 delays which include the delay to go to the hospital, delay to reach the health facility and the delay to receive health care despite reaching on time.

The session also addressed how the peer educators can play a role to address maternal inequalities in their communities. The session lead encouraged peer educators to do their role in their communities to cause change. Starting as small as encouraging community members to seek antenatal care. Ensuring men are at the forefront of maternal health care and teaching women and their spouses about maternal preparedness.

The afternoon session continued the conversation on Maternal mortality and addressed the controversial, Maternal Death due to unsafe abortion. The session was opened with key facts on unsafe abortion.

• 15,000 women will die yearly due to unsafe abortion.

• Every year, 314,000 abortions are carried out in Uganda.

• Majority of these are young girls.

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#PEA2020 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

We looked at some of the reasons why women choose to terminate their pregnancies like the existing barriers to accessing safe abortion services, restrictive laws, stigma and many others.

Accept that people need these services. Counsel, support and refer them to where they can access these services.

Our Program’s Assistant, Frances Aanyu took us through Youth-friendly Centres (YFC) and highlighted that they should be relevant, accessible, attractive, affordable, appropriate and acceptable to young people.

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his far we have come! WOW! We dunked away week two in style, learning as we have a little fun at #PEA2020. We had Mr. Semmakula Henry, From Ministry Of Education and Sports and Mr. Matovu Quraish from Reproductive Health Uganda discussing Communicable and Non-Communicable SRH diseases and infections.

We had a group exercise to break down these diseases, their signs and symptoms and how to prevent or treat them.

Martha Clara from Uganda Network of young people living with HIV & AIDS had a very engaging session as she discussed HIV/AIDS, the stigma around it, positive living, knowing one’s HIV status then prevention and treatment.

Like any other Friday, we closed off the long hyped day with a word of inspiration from our cultural icons Naava Grey and Allan Toniks who took us through their life experiences as musicians who are also agents of change. Our dance instructors later swept us off our feet (literally) with a dance session to cut down on all the heavy breakfast we had had. Week 3 is loading‌

For more information about the 2020 Peer Educators Academy, please visit our websites www.sautiplus.org and www.reachahand.org or follow us on our social media platforms; on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ reachahandug or www.facebook.com/sautiplusuganda, Twitter @reachahand and join the hashtag #PEA2020

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