On Wednesday 5th August, RWW launched a digital campaign dubbed TUBIVUGEHO which roughly translates to “Let’s talk about it” in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ingobyi Activity.
With the youth as the target audience, the campaign will be spearheaded by their peers with the aim of raising the awareness and the urgency of the importance of sexual reproductive health by creating a conversation about puberty physical changes, psychosocial Changes and Life Skills and also debunk myths and misconception about sexual reproductive health among other things.
While launching Tubivugeho campaign, Colbert Rulinda, the Executive Director at Rwanda We Want Organization, shone a light on some of the causes of the challenge of lack of knowledge about sexual and reproductive health among the youth.
“Lack of access to information on sexual and reproductive health is one of the challenges the youth are facing worldwide,” Rulinda said adding that the challenge is nurtured by a culture of keeping silence on matters related to sexual and reproductive health that is also influenced by religious views sometimes.
“This has become a barrier to the open flow of discussions around sexuality and it was about time we started asking, talking, and sharing knowledge on matters related to sexual and reproductive health.”
Scope
According to Patrick Kirenga, the Director of Programs at Rwanda We Want organization, the campaign is set in motion at a time where some interventions will be impossible due to the regulations put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19, however, it will be beneficial to the target audience on another hand.
“There are some physical interventions which won’t take place because of the measures to fight against the pandemic, but it also means that every youth is at home and the youth are known to be the most users of digital platforms,” Kirenga noted.
Therefore, he added, this serves our cause because it’s an opportunity to find these youths altogether; as the campaign will be conducted on social media, television and radio platforms.
Tubivugeho digital campaign will entail multiple sessions namely his space, her space, and our space where a male trainer for the boys and a female trainer for the girls will discuss various subjects related to sexual reproductive health such as puberty physical changes, psychosocial changes naming a few, for their respective group. After which the latter, our space, will be an educative program targeting both the male and female youth, where a male and female trainer will come together to discuss subjects which include sexual intercourse, pregnancy, contraceptive methods, sexually transmitted infections, abortion and its effects, gender-based violence, consent, and assertiveness.
The campaign will also conduct a Q&A space where the youth trainers will be answering different questions that will be probed by the audience through RWW’s social Media platforms.
Approximately, 95% of teen pregnancies occur in the developing countries, as sub-Saharan Africa is believed to have the highest prevalence.
Located in the sub-Saharan Africa, Rwanda has a population largely constituted by the youth (26.6 percent) according to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) fifth integrated household living conditions survey EICV 5. The largest age group among the youth is 16-20 years constituting 10.2 percent followed by 8.4 percent of 21-25 years and 8 percent of 26-30 years