Bahana Link-UP

According to UNFPA, Uganda registered an increase in teenage pregnancies in the year 2021, sadly most affected districts with worse statistics found in Bukedi and Busoga Sub-regions. It’s indicated that nationally about 31,566 teenage girls got pregnant monthly an equivalent of 1,052 daily with approximately 250 girls below 15 years pregnant every month. According to the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS), Butaleja district has a high teenage pregnancy burden, which stands at 30 per cent. The fertility rate stands at 8.1 per cent, far above the national average of 5.4 per cent.

According to a survey conducted by the Butaleja District Health Office last year, 5,265 girls aged between 10 and 19 years, were impregnated and dropped out of school between 2019 and 2020. Of the affected girls, only 3,596 girls attended antenatal care at different health facilities in the district. These teenage pregnancies account for the bulk of unwanted pregnancies, unintended births or abortion, early child marriages, high rates of school drop outs in both primary and secondary, STDs and un safe deliveries that lead to death of the mother or the child.

These effects spill over on to their health economic and social statuses hence there is need for a multi-sectoral approach to address the root causes and support communities to take lead. Universal Health and Development Foundation (UHDF) thorough Bahana Link-Up project implements and coordinates community and youth centered interventions in Butaleja district aimed at building capacity of communities to change mindset and behaviors towards utilization of contraception services, mobilizing and supporting adolescents to embrace use of family planning to delay and control pregnancies, streamline referrals for adolescents to receive SRHR service and build capacity of health workers to provide friendly youth SRHR services.
The project goal is to contribute to End Teenage Pregnancies and child marriages in Bukedi sub-region through engaging and rallying communities to embrace and support use of contraceptives among adolescents and young people as an alternative to delay and control pregnancies.

Its focus is to increase demand and uptake of family planning service among adolescents and young people in the region by changing community mindset and challenge myths about Family planning, mobilizing and supporting adolescents to utilize FP services, building capacity of service providers and streamline the referral pathways for adolescents SRHR services.