Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is a global predicament to which over a third of women worldwide are exposed. Its negative consequences for reproductive, maternal, adolescent, and mental health are well-documented. The 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey revealed that up to 22% of women aged 15 to 49 in the country had experienced some form of sexual violence. The report also revealed that annually, 13% of women aged 15 to 49 report experiencing sexual violence. This translates to more than 1 million women exposed to sexual violence every year in Uganda.
Despite some successes on SGBV service access, a lot more work remains to be done to ensure the victims of SGBV can be supported to access social support services as well as other SRHR services.
With funding from UNFPA and Netherlands government, Marie Stopes UG (MSUG) is implementing the ANSWER project to advance sexual Reproductive Health and Rights in facilitate this training in 12 districts of West Nile (Pakwach, Nebbi, Zombo, Arua, Madi-Okollo, Maracha, Terego, Obongi, Adjumani, Yumbe, Koboko, Moyo) and three districts of Acholi sub region (Amuru, Lamwo and Agago).
The Goal is to contribute to the achievement of universal access to SRHR of women, girls, boys, men, including vulnerable populations in Uganda. One of the activities under this project is to conduct a training of VHTs & Health Assistants on SGBV, Disability, and refugee services.
The training is aimed at building the capacity VHTs and Health assistants to effectively detect all issues and forms of SGBV amongst adolescents, women, PWDs and refugees and be able to either refer or provide appropriate services to minimize the SGBV effects on SRHR uptake
The project started on 22nd September 2021 and is expected to run for a period of one month