Over 50 teachers from primary and secondary schools across Gulu City yesterday participated in a health talk and training in handling reproductive health issues among adolescents and the youth.
The engagement, held at Gulu University’s New Library, mainly focused on sharing with the teachers preliminary findings of the CONSCOV research, skilling teachers in handling sexual and reproductive health issues among young people during the post-COVID-19 period, and setting the ground for continuous interaction on reproductive health between researchers, teachers, and young people.
A similar engagement was held in January 2024 at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) in Adjumani with primary and secondary school teachers in West Nile.
The CONSCOV consortium, which includes Gulu University, Gulu Regional Referral Hospital (GRRH), Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), and the University of Copenhagen, has since 2022 been researching the impact of COVID-19 on the sexual and reproductive health of the youth and adolescents.
Their findings indicate that many learners dropped out of school as a consequence of COVID-19, with some girls becoming pregnant and producing children, and other learners joining street gangs.
Dr. Agatha Alidri, the CONSCOV Principal Investigator (PI), said it was important for teachers to acquire skills in handling sexual and reproductive health issues among the youth and adolescents, stressing that learners usually look up to their teachers for knowledge.
Dr. Alidri facilitates a session during the training
She said reproductive health issues faced by young people include unwanted pregnancies, early pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections and diseases, early marriages, gender-based violence (defilement and rape), and maternal death among young mothers.
She said that because of the health talks and trainings conducted for teachers and learners by the CONSCOV project, beneficiary schools were reporting a positive impact in young people’s recovery from COVID-19 and its associated lockdown effects.
"The number of young people visiting Gulu Regional Referral Hospital Adolescent Clinic to receive reproductive health services, for example, has tremendously gone high as a result of CONSCOV's engagements in schools and with teachers. These engagements involve health talks, training, and counseling," she said.
“Give time to adolescents, listen to them, understand and act, guide and counsel them, relate well with them, avoid blaming them but show them empathy, have open communication with them, have confidentiality, lower yourself to their level, do not criticise [them],” advised Dr. Alidri.
Prof. David Okello Owiny, the Gulu University Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) in charge of academic affairs, said “adolescence is probably the most fragile time in our lives.”
Prof. Owiny addresses the participants.
“Babies are in the control of their parents. At adolescence you are [almost] on your own doing a lot of learning. This is when many people make it through good decisions but also many don’t make it – through bad decisions,” he told the workshop which also included students of Gulu University.
Pamela Peace Okwir, the Gulu University Deputy Dean of Students, said that the effects of COVID-19 were still deeply felt in schools and communities.
Ms. Okwir addresses the participants.
“We should not keep quiet, as parents. Young people were more impacted by the pandemic. Teachers have a critical role to play in helping our children overcome these effects,” said Okwir.
As part of the way forward, the teachers agreed to form or strengthen school health clubs as well as roll down to their colleagues the learning on handling adolescents and the youth.
The CONSCOV project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark through DANIDA.
