Kabale youth empowerment, Uganda
Kabale is one of the poorest districts in Uganda. Public health and other essential services in the area are particularly weak. Poverty among women and young people is common because of the spread of many preventable diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS.
Infectious diseases have made 8% of the population young orphans. Many people affected by these killer diseases struggle to afford the cost of long-term health care for their family members. After the death of a working family member, many people don’t have enough of an income to live on. Orphans are left to provide for themselves with little means of earning an income or an education.
Nearly half the population in Kabale are under the age of 15 and many cannot afford to go to school because of disease and poverty. Many do not recieve health care and, because of a lack of education, have no route out of poverty. They have no voice in the community, no opportunity to participate in community decisions, and are consistently overlooked by those making the decisions.
AMREF works to help youth in Kabale realize and demand their right to participation and freedom from discrimination. Further, AMREF aims to help young women demand their right to education, employment, and health care.
Main objectives of the program
AMREF focuses on giving young people in Kabale a greater understanding of their basic human rights and teaching them how to participate in local decision making processes that affect their lives. Our activities include:
- Enabling young people to influence district policies and practices to make them more youth-friendly
- Empowering young people to demand and access youth-friendly services, including health care
- Improving young people’s understanding of poverty reduction and their role in the community
- Increasing young people’s participation in decision-making processes that affect their lives
- Improving young people’s understanding of health issues and disease prevention
- Strengthening methods of information dissemination and experience-sharing among youth groups within and beyond Kabale District
Key achievements
- 118 parish youth associations have been supported and representatives chosen to speak for young people in their communities.
- Youth representatives are now attending local policy-making meetings to represent their views.
- Every health center in the district now has a member of staff trained in providing health services to young people. As a result, young people are more comfortable attending health centers and accessing health care.
- Over 470 young people have been trained as ‘peer educators’ to educate and counsel their peers on adolescent sexual and reproductive health.
- Resource centers have been established to provide information to young people on health issues and their own rights.
- AMREF has run various radio shows in Kabale to spread information about HIV/AIDS and poverty reduction.
- In order to help young people earn an income and work their way out of poverty, groups have been trained in business development, writing business plans, and attracting funding from the district authorities, NGOs, and community organizations. They also attend skills workshops run by AMREF, which offer free skills training.
- Young women have been educated about their rights and encouraged to voice their opinions within the community.
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