ANNUAL REPORT SC A L E
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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MESSAGE FROM OUR TEAM LEADER
OUR 2019 HAND PRINT
2019 TOP 5 KEY HIGHLIGHTS
BOLD ADVOCACY
DIGITAL AND TRADITION MEDIA ADVOCACY
LINKAGES TO SERVICES
OUR PARTNERS
OUR FINANCIALS
MESSAGE FROM OUR TEAM LEADER 2019 was a very successful year for Reach A Hand Uganda. Our organization made significant progress over the 12 months, with a number of particularly notable achievements. Major projects that we recently embarked on progressed satisfactorily and many more new opportunities are opening up for us. We face a very exciting future and look forward to RAHU’s growth. Some of the notable major developments we achieved over the past year.
RAHU • ANNUAL REPORT 2019
The launch of the Kyaddala: It’s Real, Pan African series. We are happy to announce that the Kyaddala; It’s real series is creating a great impact towards pushing the Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights agenda through edutainment in Uganda and beyond.
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And away from it, we also hosted a high level conversation, the InterGenerational Dialogue (IGD), our largest so far, that brought together over 1000 policy makers, health workers, religious leaders, and young people to discuss teenage pregnancy and the costs of restricted SRHR information and services for young people. The dialogue fueled the demand for policies around Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights information and services for young people. King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, the King of Tooro
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RAHU’s participation in the National Family Planning Conference allowed us to submit two oral and poster abstracts focused on the SautiPlus e- referral system and the MenPlus project that advocates for men as users, partners and champions of family planning. None of this would have been possible without an active and supportive board led by Omuk. Joseph Kigozi, our staff members, partners, government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the generous efforts of our volunteers and the communities that have opened up to us. You all made 2019 an outstanding success, thank you.
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2019 had us organize our first ever Girls’ festival in Kabale and Kampala.The festival, created a platform to further advocate for women and girl-child empowerment. The event and post festival activities also acted as satellite events for the 2019 Women Deliver Conference held in Vancouver, Canada.
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In the Albertine region, we went big in Hoima with the iKnow HIV awareness campaign where 8,607 people accessed HIV testing and counselling, family planning, information on gender based violence among others.
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Kingdom who was the chief guest made commitments to address young people’s SRHR needs.
OUR 2019 HAND PRINT Each year since 2011, we have continued to expand our reach to more parts of Uganda seeking out to empower young people in different settings and communities and 2019 was no exception. During the year, we carried out interventions in 42 Districts, compared to the 36 districts in 2018. Take a look at our presence.
NORTHERN REGION: Amudat, Moroto, Abim, Kaabong, Kotido, Napak, Nakapiripirit, Lira, Agago, Kitgum, Lamwo, Amuru, Adjumani, Moyo, Yumbe, Arua, Gulu, Obongi, Mad-Okollo and Otuke. CENTRAL REGION: Kampala, Kasanda, Mukono, Wakiso, Masaka and Mityana.
RAHU • ANNUAL REPORT 2019
EASTERN REGION:
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Mayuge, Butaleja, Iganga, Jinja, Pallisa, Buyende, Mbale, Kumi and Soroti. WESTERN REGION: Mbarara, Kabale, Hoima, Bushenyi, Kasese, Rwampara and Kagadi.
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RAHU • ANNUAL REPORT 2019
2019 TOP
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
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Our inaugural 2019 Girls Festival was held on 8th March 2018 to celebrate the International Women’s Day. The festival brought together several women and girls as well as activists to celebrate the gains from gender equality and created a platform to further advocate for women and girl child empowerment. The event had build up and post festival activities acted as a satellite event for the 2019 Women Deliver Conference held in Vancouver, Canada.
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THE GIR LS F E STI VAL
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M E NP LUS
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In partnership with Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) and supported by Bergstrom Foundation, we launched Menplus, a project that promotes male involvement in Family planning. Through interpersonal communication, outreaches, and clinical interventions, and the male champions model, men are getting involved in supporting their spouses to access family planning as well as taking up permanent Family Planning methods and services such as Vasectomy and Tubal Ligation. A total 428 (Vasectomy: 331 and Tubal ligation: 97) permanent family planning services were provided in 2019.
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On September 28th, we premiered our long awaited Pan-African Edutainment TV show that aired on NBS Television. The TV show shot and directed in Uganda featured a talented cast from East and West Africa, and employed the power of storytelling on Sexual Reproductive Health to highlight the numerous challenges young people and adolescents face in their daily lives.
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KYA DDA L A : IT’ S REAL
T HE 2 01 9 IN TE R G E N E R ATI ONAL DI ALOGUE ( I GD)
RAHU • ANNUAL REPORT 2019
Our celebrated annual IGD conference attracted over 500 participants and created a platform for structured conversations on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) issues affecting adolescents and young people in Uganda. The participants included; Development partners, Civil Society, parents, media, ministry technocrats, policymakers, society leaders (religious, cultural and political) as well as young people. These deliberated on the theme, “Teenage Pregnancy and the costs of restricted SRHR information and services for young people.” under the broader theme of Innovation, Lifestyle and Power.
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As a result of the dialogue, stakeholders including King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, the King of Tooro Kingdom made commitments to address young people’s SRHR needs such as budgeting for young people, passing of the National school health policy and engaging and creating safe spaces for young people to learn.
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1 6 DAYS O F AC TIVIS M From November 25th - December 10th, we embarked on a series of GBV awareness activities supported by UNFPA Uganda under the Women, Adolescents and Young people, Rights and Empowerment program in Arua District. These included integrated community dialogues and activations, radio talk shows, soccer matches and more. We reached over 6,000 people directly with information and services through radio talk shows, dialogues, door to door mobilization, flash mob, football matches and road drives in a bid to create a platform to create avenues for engagement on GBV in the region. A total of 3,047 young people received SRHR/or GBV services and information during the outreaches. A total of 108,120 received condoms and 49 received short-term and long-term family services.
EMPOWERING
RAHU • ANNUAL REPORT 2019
YOUNG PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES
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16,949 stakeholders (policymakers, community leaders, parents, school administrators, health workers, religious and cultural leaders) were engaged through a series of community dialogues and Share 101s across the country.
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16,612 in school young people across the country were reached through our social behavioural change peer learning sessions on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR).
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We launched the SAUTIPlus mobile application that has since had 2,050 downloads on Google Playstore. The platform eases access to timely and informative sexual reproductive health content to help young people make informed choices on SRH access to information on nearby health centers, while linking them to opportunities.
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434 young change agents were trained as peer educators and youth champions across 42 districts of Uganda. This continues to contribute to our long term agenda of creating an empowered movement of young people who can support their fellow young people to make informed choices.
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RAHU • ANNUAL REPORT 2019
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YOUTH-LED RESEARCH
12 youth researchers were selected and trained and placed in the districts of Jinja, Mayuge, Buyende, Pallisa and Butaleja to conduct youth led research on the causes of teenage pregnancies and the role of parents in sexuality education. The dissemination workshop provided an opportunity to engage the different stakeholders such as Civil Society Organisations, Religious leaders, parents, teachers, government officials and policy makers on how parents/or guardians can be supported to effectively provide Sexuality Education to young people. 4 policy briefs and 1 survey report on the quality of Sexual reproductive health care for women, adolescents and young people were developed and disseminated to local leaders at the grass-root level as a means to amplify young people’s voices as well as increase transparency through social accountability led by young people. We used findings from the research and policy briefs activities to engage and dialogue with the different stakeholders on the SRHR issues affecting young people in the country such as policy makers/members of parliament, young people especially from schools and Universities, religious leaders among others.
RAHU • ANNUAL REPORT 2019
7 young persons with disabilities were recruited and trained at the Peer Educators’ Academy. These are part of our Make 12.4% Work Initiative inclusion program, an initiative aimed at triggering private sector and civil society actors to open employment opportunities and programs to persons with disabilities.
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Our collaborations with coalitions to push Policy advocacy and alternatives - We have Collaborated with coalitions that focus on pushing for the passing of policies aimed at providing a progressive guide for young people’s SRHR access to information and services for example the National School Health Policy. Collaborations with the Coalition to Stop Maternal Mortality and Morbidity due to Unsafe Abortions (CSMMUA), Voices for Health, RHRN we advocated for progressive policies on various SRHR issues including on safe abortions in Uganda, restrictive legal and policy environments. life. We also officially joined the Family Planning consortium that promotes the increased uptake of contraceptives and diverse methods by young people to curb challenges of teenage pregnancies, spread of STDs that remain a rampant challenge in Uganda.
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D I G I TA L A N D TR A DITIO N A L MEDI A ADVOCACY Media Engagements around SRHR conversations:
RAHU • ANNUAL REPORT 2019
30 media personnel from different media houses were trained on young people’s Sexual Reproductive Health and needs. These media personalities, having got an understanding of SRHR and the different issues young people continue to face in this regard, have actively prioritized reporting on SRHR issues. With collaboration with NBS T.V RAHU released 2 investigative stories one on the plight of unsafe abortions in Uganda and the second on the importance of progressive policies around young people’s SRHR both at grassroots and national levels and for in and out of school young people.
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L I N KAG E TO SE RVICES
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302,729 modern contraceptives were accessed by youth throughout our various channels either at the health centre or community outreaches and these contraceptives included, Implanon, Janelle, sayana press, pills, Depo Provera and condoms (male and female).
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21,749 people accessed SRH services such as HIV/AIDS, STI screening and testing (Gonorrhoea, Syphilis,Cervical Cancer etc), from a total of 41 community outreaches/activations that were conducted in the different districts throughout the year. Of these, 8,607 people accessed HIV services counselling and testing under our flagship HIV/AIDS awareness campaign Iknowkati with our partners Global Living Institute and other community outreaches.
OUR FINANCIALS
91% RAHU INCOME RECOGNIZED FOR 2019
RAHU • ANNUAL REPORT 2019
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RAHU Income Recognized for 2019 Donor Income Locally fundraised Income Total Income
% Amount in UGX 91% 9% 100%
OUR PARTNERS ST R AT EG I C A N D A L L I A N C E PA R TN E R S
The Coalition to stop Maternal Mortality due to unsafe abortion Ministry of Health
Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries
I M P L EM E N TI N G PA R TN E R S
Makerere School of Public Health
COR P OR AT E M E D I A A N D E N TE R TA I N ME N T
F U N DI N G PA R TN E R S
RAHU • ANNUAL REPORT 2019
Ministry of Education and Sports
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Plot 7502, Block 244 - Kitaranga, Kansanga - Ggaba Road P.O. Box 21288, Kampala - Uganda Tel: +256 (0) 414 697 037 Email: info@reachahand.org Web: www.reachahand.org