My voyage to WorldPulse

ikirimat

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Tags:

• 'young women empowerment
• 2011 VOF
• 2011 VOF Week 2
• 2011 Voices of our Future
• against hiv
• SHIP
• women media

During the recent SHIP training of SHEs in Rukungiri

I have always been confronted with a number of dreadful situations around me. …a girl is defiled, made pregnant by a relative, a wife is hacked to death by a husband, a girl is married off by her parents to save a piece of land due to a debt, a widow is sent out of her matrimonial home after her husband’s death…These women and girls have no power, no control, no say on their lives. This gave me a strong sensation that if nobody is doing much, then I should do something to make a difference in one girl’s or woman’s life!!!

Indeed, the turning point was when I attended training in Israel on Sexual Health and HIV prevention for adolescents in 2007. I was excited that this training would lead me to a cause I was determined to persue. The Sexual Health Improvement Project (SHIP) was then conceived during the training. We developed a proposal on how to make use of the skills we had acquired to make a contribution to addressing the sexual health challenges of young people in Uganda.

The voyage of SHIP then began with one step (‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step’- Chinese proverb). We began working with young people in our neighborhoods, in church and rural homes whenever we had sometime. It was obvious that the young people enjoyed and appreciated the times spent with then conducting sexual health education sessions with them. However, we found that we could not juggle between SHIP and office duties thus rendering our efforts less effective in achieving SHIP goal. It was at this point that we thought of a more effective and sustainable approach to reaching more young people- we trained Sexual Health educators within the communities. This is the root of the passion with which the SHIP team is steering this project.

I had access to the internet, I was yearning to read more on women issues especially young people; I also wanted to discuss, share and understand what goes on in other parts of the world. I vividly remember in 2010 punching in the Google search engine (‘women empowerment discussion forum’). In my heart I exclaimed, ahhaa, I got it!!- www.worldpulse.com - straight away in just one pulse, I was able to find so many resources and later connected with women across the globe , to date I have exchanged ideas in this forum and indeed changed lives.

I now recall that I had on several occasions tried to raise the voices of the voiceless in the local newspapers, but was always disappointed when my story could not be published, may be because of the stringent criteria for having one’s story published in it. I am excited because I have found comfort, a family in world pulse, who is ready to listen, to share, to guide me in my voyage in achieving the my dream. My participation in VOF will enable many more voices of the voiceless to be heard and lives changed.