MEANINGFUL
YOUTH
ENGAGEMENT
SRHR is a critical part of young people’s lives – whether or not they are sexually active.
In Uganda, young women (aged 25 and under) and adolescent girls (15 – 19 years old) are less likely to use contraception than older women. And the consequences of becoming pregnant are often worse. Complications from pregnancy is second leading cause of death among adolescent girls.
We work with young people, aged 15 – 25 years old in Fort Portal, Uganda to ensure they have access to the SRHR information they want and need. Cultural expectations of what is ‘appropriate’ behaviour around sexuality often makes access to SRHR difficult for young people.
In Uganda:
66% of Ugandans are 24 years old*
1 in 6 young women will be pregnant by age 20**
60% unmarried young women aged 15 – 24 are sexually active & not using contraception***
* PMA2020 Uganda, Adolescents & Young Adults Health Brief 2018
** PMA2020 Uganda, Adolescents & Young Adults Health Brief 2018
*** PMA2020 Uganda, Adolescents & Young Adults Health Brief 2018
With RHU, we are delivering change for young people:
23,000 young people provided with digital SRHR information
497 young people’s insights helped design our three innovative approaches
75 young people’s visual storytelling-initiated discussion on SRHR
5 youth-led grassroots advocacy projects supported
COVID-19 unravelled access to SRHR for a generation of young people across Uganda with widespread disruption in accessing SRHR information, care and supplies. School closures, reduced clinic hours and lack of in-person peer education have resulted in rising rates of teen pregnancy, child marriage and gender-based violence.
Youth Engagement
Young people play an important role in delivering our work in Uganda. While we want young people to be armed with the right information to enable choice, we aim high for meaningful youth engagement.
We support young people’s leadership by giving them decision-making roles in the design, development and continuous improvement of our approaches. We regularly ask young people for their views and ideas to be heard. We support young people to share their experience and knowledge as experts.
A creative process for youth-led action
Stories are a compelling communication tool and 22 times more memorable than facts. We want young people to consider how their stories – lived experiences and dreams for the future – can imagine a future where we can all make informed decisions.
When 20 young people participated in our participatory photography workshop in January 2020, their feedback helped shape a new and improved creative process. In the past three years, Stories 4 Change: Digital Storytelling for SRHR has lead 75 young people through a creative process, while building basic digital and communication skills. The workshop is a springboard for youth-led action including a Community Exhibition, small grant facility and social media campaigns.
Ask RHU – an mHealth solution designed for and with young people
We wanted young people to shape the development of platforms for SRHR information. That is why we engage young people in all stages in designing, developing, testing and continuous improvement our three approaches.
230 young people shaped the development Ask RHU – our mobile messaging service. With young people involved in the Co-Design, test users shaped how young users may use the chatbot in their every day life. Through 374 test sessions and over 10.6k interactions, test users shaped content, language and tone. 750 new areas were identified as a result of user feedback. Today, Ask RHU is available nationwide, and continues to be improved through use and feedback.
Stories of Choice
