TEENAGE PREGNANCIES IN BUSOGA REGION.

 

Busoga has consistently recorded the highest annual number of teenage pregnancy cases in Uganda over the past three years. Uganda Demographic and Health Survey(UDHS) report released early this year and said the region registered 46,337 cases in 2021,an increase from 44,227 in 2020 and 45,120 in 2019.Kamuli and Luuka districts reported the highest number of teenage births for the years 2020 and 2021 respectively according to the UNFP report.

This number has come to rise due to Covid 19 pandemic which led to the closure of schools making girls idle hence it was easy for the to get pregnant. The outbreak of covid 19 also led young girls in rural areas to have challenges accessing family planning and health facilities for example transport challenges to reach the facilities. Increased poverty has led to the rise of early teenage pregnancy because parents cannot afford to pay school fees for there children for school hence they are exposed to sexual habits where they become pregnant in the process. There is also early forced marriages done by parents which has led to teenage pregnancies.sexual violence  where by the teenagers are raped,sexually abused by the people around them or relatives which has led to rise of teenage pregnancies.parental neglect or failed parenthood and this is seen in a case of Alice Nabirye' s mother who informed her older children that she didn't have money to look after them upon the death of their father in 2018.Nabirye was only 15 years old .A 19 year old man in the neighborhood offered to occasionally provide some basic needs and used to to sleep with Nabirye in order to pay back his money which resulted to Nabirye getting pregnant at 16years of age and yet the man couldn't take care of his family.

According to daily Monitor, the research conducted between 2019 and 2020 indicates that Busoga region registered as many as 89,347 teenage pregnancies followed by Too to and Bunyoro at 57660 and 57,295 respectively hence Busoga region has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in the country and they attributed the alarming levels of teenage pregnancies in Busoga region to Covid 19 pandemic,poverty.poor parenting.moral degeneration. Failed parenthood and vulnerability of girls.According to the report, teenage pregnancy has stagnated over years at 25percent despite the interactions to put in place and address sexual and reproductive health issues for young people.

Another reference is Dr.Betty Kyadondo,the director of Family Health National Population Council who said since  2018 to date, the country has registered about 350,000 cases of teenage pregnancies across the country with Busoga topping the list and it is said 350,000 teenage pregnancies occur annually nation wide and 30,000 young girls aged between 13 and 19 are getting pregnant early month implying that 10,000 girls are getting pregnant everyday which is so worrying.