“Engage in income generating Projects"; Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana tells Students.

By Teddy Namayanja
Public Relations Officer - Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI)

Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana (Center-In suite) with the students of Mengo Senior Scondary School

Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana, the Executive Director, Foundation for Human Rights Initiative has appealed to the youth to be more innovative and creative and engage in income generating projects than aspiring for luxurious lifestyles that end up ruining their lives and future as well.

He made the remarks while counseling students who gathered at Mengo Senior Secondary School to benefit from the “Kavubuka Ampaga” program that airs on Bukedde Television station every Thursday from 2:30pm to 3:30pm. The schools that participated in the program on 25^th February 2015 were: Mengo Secondary School; Janan Senior Secondary, Kabalagala; World Ahead Senior Secondary School, Bulenga; and Light High School, Seguku.

The “Kavubuka Ampaga” program is an initiative by Women Health Care Development (WHCD) and has been airing on Bukedde Television station for the last 3 months. It seeks to reach out to students through awareness programs that counsel them on reproductive health, keeping safe from HIV AIDS and avoiding early pregnancies. Under the program, students from different schools gather to discuss and share ideas on issues that challenge them as youths. During the discussions, experts in different fields are brought on board to offer career guidance to the students and to counsel them.

The day’s topic was, “Why do students get pregnant at an early age?”

Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana advised the students to have bigger dreams and aspirations. He further urged them to remain focused on their studies while pursuing their careers.  He called upon students to desist from gifts from older men and women, avoid groups that mislead them and instead ensure being responsible both at their respective schools and homes, respectful to their parents, teachers and community members and above all, be God fearing. According to him, that is the only way the youth will achieve their dreams.

He however noted that the growing number of school drop outs especially for girls due to pregnancy is attributed to; high levels of poverty, lack of awareness and access to reproductive health information, poor parenting, exposure to pornography through social media, peer pressure, use of drugs, lack of counselling and guidance, child abuse, domestic violence, and looking up to wrong personalities in society. According to the Population Secretariat, out of the 1.2 million pregnancies recorded in Uganda annually, 25 per cent of these are teenage pregnancies.

The Uganda Demographic Health survey 2011reports that, 14 per cent of young women and 16 per cent of young men had their first sexual encounter before the age of 15 while 57 per cent of young women had their first encounter before the age of 18.