Adolescents and young people are often left behind when it comes to issues of their health and how best they would like to access to health care services and information. This in turn brings about risky situations such as teenage pregnancy, immorality, poor nutrition, and unsafe abortion, to mention but a few.
The National Adolescent Health Working Group held a meeting on the 10th of December at Fairway hotel in Kampala to come up with solutions to these problems facing young people and to come up with a work plan which is to be forwarded to the Ministry of Health so as to be incorporated into the different policies that will positively affect the health of adolescents and young people.
This working group consists of CSO members, officials from the health sector and the ministry. Key issues affecting adolescents such as adolescent growth, development, health, survival and sexuality were discussed, and warnings on what occurs when these are not addressed were also highlighted, these outcomes include teenage pregnancy, earl marriage, gender based violence and unsafe abortions to mention but a few.
With all the mentioned issues and factors it was noted that limited access to age appropriate information and health care services is a contributing factor. So many adolescents feel left out in matters of their health especially when it comes to sexual reproductive health, as they cannot openly ask for this information and services.
This meeting aims at putting the discussed issues and most importantly the recommendations to use through the adolescent health policy, which will include adolescents and young in matters concerning their health, and more importantly include them in achieving universal health coverage.