By Obbo Yusuf
The increased teenage pregnancies in Busoga Region during Lockdown has shocked and concerned the cultural leaders in the region on how to handle the situation.
David Balikitenda, the monitoring officer at Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau revealed that their research in Busoga conducted between march 2020 to August 2020 at least 4062 young girls were victims of teenage pregnancy.
In the research, Iganga district was identified as most affected areas with over 1000 teenage pregnancies
David attributed the problem to the poor parenting, religious beliefs, norms, poverty, illiteracy and moral decay
During the stakeholders meeting convened by the Uganda Protestant Medical Beruea mainly with the cultural leaders of Busoga especially those in Iganga districts to forge a way forward to the problem, the katikiro of kigulu chiefdom, Mr kabaki Noah said parents who see their children as the source of income to the family are the main driver of the problem.
He also expressed concern over the poor or no services delivery to their communities hence urging Parliament and local governments to allocate a budget to the traditional leaders to help them effectively deliver services to their subjects.
Nakaima Ruith Nakidodo the minister for Education from Kigulu Chiefdom and also the head of Abambejja of kigulu chiefdom revealed that the chiefdom resolved to come up with a policy of revealing the best and worse clans in grooming children.
The Busoga cultural leaders also resolved to come up with the village committees to monitor children’s conduct in community in addition to disciplining those who misbehave
According to Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau research, Busoga has the highest fertility rate in Uganda standing at 6.9 in woman against the national average level of 6.2 while Iganga district has 125000 women of productive age with 217 per 100,000 infant mortalit . The teenage pregnancy rate in Busoga stands at 27 %.
