SAVE MY GENERATION

Two years of lock-down and staying out of school exposed teenage girls to unwanted pregnancies and Bukedea District in Uganda was ranked number one in having the highest number of teenage pregnancies during this period. Poverty in their homes made them soft targets from mature men as they had to accept sex in exchange for some money to make ends meet. This did not just expose them to sexually transmitted infections, but it has also caused many unwanted pregnancies in this helpless group. Many risk to drop out of school completely.

In Bukedea District, there are unprecedented levels of commercial sex among girls organized in informal groups such as -Team No Sleep, Team No Size” and ‘Team No Condom” among others ( COVID19 Parliamentary Task Force; The District Community Development Officer). (https://www.galaxyfm.co.ug/2021/08/03/bukedea-mps-report-commercial-sex-on-rise-among-team-no-sleep-team-no-size-team-no-condom-informal-girl-groups/)

The Senior Probation Officer Bukedea District, said between April and September 2020, at least 730 teenage girls conceived during the lockdown in only two sub counties of the district (Kidongole and Koena). https://www.independent.co.ug/two-sub-counties-in-bukedea-register-730-teen-pregnancies/

According to the District Community Development Officer – Bukedea, in the second lock down, they have registered a total of 1,024 teenage girls seeking antenatal care service in Kachumbala health center III and in the month of June over 136 teenage births were registered while some others give birth from various clinics. 

The Resident District Commissioner Bukedea who is the chairperson Covid-19 task force says the cause of alarming child pregnancies is due to lack of community sensitization and education.

http://hejnu.ug/bukedea-district-regiters-over-a-thousand-teenage-pregnancies-since-second-lock-down/

Bukedea district report to Parliament indicated that in Bukedea district, the number of teenage pregnancies had risen from 72 in 2O19 to 1000 by the end of 2O2O. https://www.galaxyfm.co.ug/2021/08/03/bukedea-mps-report-commercial-sex-on-rise-among-team-no-sleep-team-no-size-team-no-condom-informal-girl-groups/

Life is very difficult economically and households try to survive on less than $1 a day. 55% of the  girls are married off young or choose to do commercial sex for a living.

Local governmental aided facilities and clinics are poorly equipped and lack most basic medicines and infrastructure to handle the crisis. Teenage mothers with complicated pregnancies and deliveries need to travel long distances over poor roads to get to reasonable hospitals in Mbale whose services are unaffordable, contributing to high maternal and infant deaths

UYDT teenage centre in Bukedea district, a program of Uganda youth development and training organization, provides sexuality education, family planning, counselling, vaccination and screening for sexually transmitted infections to youths living in our communities and prenatal care for pregnant underage girls(teenagers). 

UYDT also trains the youths that drop out of school and all those interested in skilling programs to empower them with skills that enable them to generate income, break cycles of poverty and live independent but descent lives. 

In the Proposed project called "SAVE MY GENERATION" We aim to

• Develop and strengthen the ability of young people – girls in particular – to make conscious, satis- fying, healthy and respectful choices regarding relationships, sexuality and emotional and physical health.
•  Enable safe motherhood among teenage mothers by enabling access to quality prenatal care services. 
•  Bring hope to the hopeless young parents and school drop outs by empowering them with skills that enable them to live independent but descent lives

• Teenage girls and boys : will be able to make conscious decisions like when to get married, when to have children
• Women: will be able to know the status of their babies both the unborn and born and also gynecological issues.
• People with disabilities: will have access to health care and affordably 
• Pregnant mothers: will know the status of the babies and get the support they need to have a health baby of safe delivery.
• Teenage mothers: will be given health care, education and also hands on training in order to be able to take care of their children and live a decent life.

we interact with the girls and boys, women to help design what to deliver, we also engage the commercial sexual groups also to understand what issue that led to the business they are doing and what challenges they face in doing such business hence they suggest ways of how developmental partners can support them. at least 30 have already joined the activities of UYDT vocational institute.

We also  have a teenage center registered with the ministry of health to support as meeting place for the teenagers and work where teenagers freely and willingly visit the center for counselling, mentorship and guidence.

we also have programs in the community  radios where we discuss issues of youth, teenage pregnancies, unwanted pregnancies, early marriegaes, hence community calls onto the radio and issues are dialogued hence input is take into project account.

UYDT team also uses an approach called the inquiry approach where members of the community is supported in to filling the community assessment forms; which helps the team to understand the magnitude of the problem to be solved.

We also have a team of seven very well qualified personel, to support the attainment of the vision. The team includes; (1Doctor, 2 Nurse, 2 counselors, 1 sonographer, 1 lab attendant)

• To be able to scale up the development and sustainability of the project in order to serve more people because there are overwhelming numbers of teenagers who still need sexual education, health care services and hands on skills for transformation to happen in the lives of these vulnerable groups of people.
• the team also applies for the techinical support, so as to ba able to share experiences with other exparts around 

• Access mentorship, coaching, and strategic advice from experts, as well as the Solve and MIT networks. 

• Access relevant in-kind resources such as software licenses and legal services from Solve Member and partner organizations. 

• Receive monitoring and evaluation support to build an impact measurement practice. 

• Gain exposure in the media and at conferences.

The proposed SAVE MY GENRATION Project is an innovative solution in the following ways;

1. it is youth centered program focused on youth empowerment with emphasis on livelihoods & skills Development, Behavior Change, communication, Sexual Reproductive Health& Rights, and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. in so doing it looks at building the young genration which is nurted, mentored, with right minset to be change maker and change agents in their respective communities. 

Globally; young people are said to form the biggest number compared to other population, in Uganda alone; young people form 72%of the population full of enougy that could be taped on to cause positive change in the economic development of the country.

Uganda is one of the developing countries with highest number of the population being young according to the Ugandan census approximately 1.3 million Ugandans are aged 15-24 years. yet 4.5 Million Ugandan Youth are unemployed, 32.9% of the country’s population is aged between 10-24 years,25% of the adolescents have began child bearing, 19% of women aged 15-19 have give birth.

The government health centers in Uganda have been encouraged to provide youth friendly sexual reproductive health services however only 5% of the health centers try to do that. Still on that note 65% of the young people were not happy with the services they received at the health centers. UNICEF annual report.

14% of teenage girls aged 15-19 years do not use contraceptive methods due to having limited access to contraceptives and 27% of the adolescents in rural areas are childbearing.

Poverty, HIV and AIDS, early marriage, teenage pregnancy, gender-based violence and low participation in secondary education make it difficult for young people to fulfil their potential. 

Adolescent girls, in particular, face multiple vulnerabilities. Adolescent girls are severely and unevenly at risk of HIV infection – two thirds of all new HIV infections are contracted by adolescent girls. Many girls also drop out of school as a result of unwanted teenage pregnancy and early marriage. According to the Ministry of Health, 25 per cent of Ugandan teenagers become pregnant by the age of 19. Close to half are married before their 18th birthday and continue having babies into their mid-40s. 

Complicated births and abortions, often requiring emergency obstetric care, are all too common among adolescent girls. But many teenage mothers do not have access to adequate reproductive health care and die while trying to give life. Uganda has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates, with 18 mothers dying every day in pregnancy or during and after childbirth. The traditional practice of child marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) also persists in many communities. In 2013, Uganda ranked 16th out of 25 countries with the highest rate of child marriages. In the Pokot community in Amudat district (Karamoja), almost all girls (95 per cent) have been cut to make them more ‘marriageable’. Both practices are devastating for girls’ physical and mental health.

Among community needs which were identified. The need to create a solution to address the problem of teenage pregnancy among young girls in Bukedea  district and to offer better healthcare options for young mothers was prioritized and training them in hands on skills to be able to take care of their children to grow up as better citizens.

Many solutions were considered to help provide care to this group, however creating a centre – UYDT Teenage Center For Health where adolescent and teenage girl child health issues can be addressed comprehensively became our starting point. The proposed project will establish a Health centre that will  give access to sexuality education for adolescents while helping pregnant girls to get the care they need when and where they need it in collaboration with the local health centre IV. This centre will complement other programs we are already running that provide youths with important skills to help them to break out of poverty and survive. The centre screens for sexually transmitted infections and Identifies high risk cases and collaborates with the local health facilities for their management. All youths that drop out of school are attached UYDT Vocational Institute to provide them with skills that empower them economically.

UYDT’s of "SAVE MY GENERATION" efforts are timely to make a contribution to ensuring that every young person in Uganda particularly Bukedea District can access the accurate information to aid and direct them in taking that crucial life decision regarding their live skills and development, behavior change communication and sexual reproductive health and rights and HIV/AIDS prevention.

The proposed project will focus on dimension of  the following impact goals;

1. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

these will be through the provision  and accessibility of affordable health care services to ensure the well-being of all people.

2. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

through providing opportunities to girls and women to thrive and participate.

3. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

this will be through entrepreneurship education and support whether at school or not at school.

4. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

through training and enabling the building of ideas, ventures and tool kit support to small scale business

The team will use impact assessment forms, administer surveys and come up with data that will help draw conclusions on the impact created; for example;

The tools of monitoring and evaluation will help identify the number of the beneficiaries

the kind of support to each beneficiary

the beneficiary success story where the beneficiary will tell their own life story and its documented (story at the begining and at the end of the project)

  Progress report written quarterly to be able to track progress.

Our project will succeed because:

• We understand the community having served it for the last 8 years. We have made strong community networking.
• Community involvement and participation in every project activity whiel incooporation ancestral wisdom with modern tools and technologies.
• We are working with technical support of doctors and  the Radiographer to help screen clients. 
•  The project is also demand driven as the community is really in need of these services especially due to the effects caused by the COVID 19 lock down that has left many young people both girls and boys in making poor choices of life which they need support to deal with.

• We are collaborating with local leaders, health facilities and workers.

The project will mostly use Behavioral Technology , ancestral technology and Materials science

Behavioral Technology through ; activities and experiences. ▫ It is an application of scientific knowledge or modifying clients' behavior in the case of this project the youth, mothers behaviour. ▫ It is also called as 'Training ...

The Project will also leverage traditional/ancestral and natural technologies and knowledge systems that build on the modern techniques and cause positive change.In this case of our project we will remind the cleints (youth, women and community members ) of pronound socieatal/ ancestral  behaviour accepted in the community as regards to commercial sex is concers, also health maters. hence helping our cleients change attitude, behaviuor to do things differently.

The project will also use the Material science; these will involve the tools, mechines used to ensure the life of the client is secure and these will help the team identify other ways of finding a solution into the project.

The team is composed of all genders both women and men, boys and girls

the team has also incoporated the people with disabilities and inclusive of different tribes and languages with different expertise and knowledge that all contribute into the project well execution 

Key Partners

• The local communities (Vulnerable rural youth, Teenage Mothers,pregnant young gilrs, girls at school and out of school, women)
• The local government authorities
• The donors (National and international)
• Friends.
• The local civil society organizations
• The founders and directors.

Key Activities

• Diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
• Antenatal services (ultrasound scan services, examination and referrals)
• HIV testing and Counseling (HCT)
• Counseling and emotional support
• Post abortion care
• Contraception services 
• Educative sexual health talks at the centre
• Treatment of other ailments such as malaria and fever 
• Outreach services
• Sexuality health education.
• Family planning,
• Vaccination for example against cervical cancer and tetanus, prenatal care and referrals to ensure better care. Liking teenagers to UYDT vocational institute for skills empowerment

Value Proposition

• Consciousness raising
• Training
• Education
• Information sharing Economic empowerment for sustainable development

Customer Relationships

• Community projects
• Extension services
• Information and awareness
• Co-creation with our the beneficiaries and communities at large
• Exchange visits for learning purposes
• Personal assistance like providing start up tool kits. Customers care visits for more guidence

Customer Segments

• The youth (10-28yrs)
• Girls Children (9-18yrs)
• Women (especially vulnerable groups like single mothers, rural poor , school dropouts, teenage mothers  & widows
• the farmers 
• The food produce dealers
• The mass community
• The donors and  partners Friends and families 

Channels

• the teenage center
• Radios
• Broucures
• News letters
• Website links  
• Face to face interactions
• Community participatory action planning
• Community dialogues
• Workshops Appreciative inquiry surveys  

Key Resources

• Physical infrastructures (Buildings, community wholes for training, class rooms)
• Over 50 trained staff
• Finances over
• Community vulnerable groups  
• Training material (training manuals etc) Projects resources like start up tool kits for the beneficiaries 

Cost Structure

• Training materials
• equipments
• drugs 
• Staff salaries
• Fuel to the field
• Logistics (foods and drinks)
• Transport facilitation Projects resources eg tools for school farms

Revenue Streams

• Donors
• Sales from services 

The UYDT team  will scale up the project to serve more people beyond Bukedea district  especially taking the whole Eastern Region of Uganda and collection will be accumulated and rebounced back into the project due to the vast services offered in the teenage health center.

We will encourage involvement of more local partners, governments and other developmental partners to lobby and advocate for the continuity.

Additional revenue will be provided by conducting fundraising meetings locally and from fees collected from training programs and from sonography services.

UYDT operates other departments like the UYDT vocational institute that trains on hands on skill and the product are sold to the community as sustainability.

For the UYDT teenage center that will champion the save my generation proposed project will have services like; testing different illnesses, ultrasound scanning which in the community we; are the only providers, doctors examination of different illnesses and many other services. will be affordably given to the community members.