By Anzoo Evaline.

A delegation of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) partners and associates led by the Danish Ambassador have extended the Women Uganda 2025+ campaign to Adjumani.

The extension was incorporated into a high-level field monitoring visit to the Strengthening Adolescents and Youth (SAY) Project that took place on Friday 24^th October 2025.

The Women Uganda 2025+ campaign is a collaboration launched by female Heads of Missions from Denmark, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, UN Women, and UNFPA. The campaign aims to transform policy and practice through the active involvement of progressive men acting as male change makers.

The joint monitoring visit demonstrated a unified commitment to the Women Uganda 2025+ campaign by emphasizing the crucial role of male engagement in advancing gender equality and addressing issues such as teenage pregnancy and gender-based violence (GBV).

The high level delegation included: Her Excellency Signe Winding Albjerg – the Ambassador of Denmark to Uganda; Ms. Kristine Blokhus – the UNFPA Country Representative; the Royal Danish Embassy’s Male Change Maker, Dr. Jimmy Spire Ssentongo – academic, acclaimed cartoonist, and Human Rights Activist, as well as the UNFPA Male Champion, Don Zan Muwanguzi, a Mental Health Activist and Founder of Awesome Mind Speaks.

During his opening remark, the District Chairman, Hon. Anyama Ben, appreciated the government of Denmark for always having Uganda at heart more so Adjumani district and also applauded the Ambassador for always loving Adjumani in particular.

He further urged the donors to continue supporting the district in different ways since its one the biggest refugees hosting district with nineteen settlements of about over 230,600 refugees.

“I want thank the government of Denmark for loving Uganda, and especially the Ambassador H.E. Singe for always coming in person when there’s activity taking place in Adjumani and also my sister Kristine for UNFPA. The Danish Embassy has helped us the people of Adjumani a lot especially during this period where UNHCR is withdrawing its support for the refugees and we all know that these people don’t have land for cultivating since the land given for them is very small so thank you very much Ambassador”, said Anyama.

While highlighting the success of the SAY project in the different sectors in the district, the Principal Chief Administrative Officer of Adjumani District, Mr. Edema Richard, said, “In the area of sexual reproductive health rights that is affecting adolescent, youth, and women. And therefore, we are trying to push this together for both the host community and the refugee population. But the fact is, we want to thank the people of Denmark for contributing their own taxpayer’s money to address the challenge facing at Adjumani District Local Government”.

“And particularly, the population for both the host and the refugees and targeting women, youth, adolescent in areas of addressing challenges like teenage pregnancy which is high in Adjumani district. High level of GBV in Adjumani district local government. So, we are trying to address this together to make sure that we reduce this”, Edema added.

He added that “underway project or program we have tried to address these challenges during the time of the entry of the refugee population in 2013 up to 2024. We use that resources appropriately. We tried our level best to reduce some of these cases, but allow me put it here. We still have high level of teenage pregnancies. We have high level of GBV cases still existing. And therefore, we are here to make sure that we use these resources under the say program to address some of these challenges still remaining through the youth clubs, through the school clubs, health clubs to make sure that we address some of these challenges facing us”.

H.E. Ambassador Albjerg highlighted the Royal Danish Embassy’s commitment through its partnership with Dr. Spire Ssentongo, who will use his expertise to create positive messages promoting gender equality, focusing on women in leadership, teenage pregnancy, and women’s rights.

“We do work with a lot of partners, but whatever we do, we need the commitment of the local government and the communities in which we work. Otherwise, all the efforts will be in vain. And I’m always happy to come to Adjumani to experience the very strong commitment from the Adjumani district local government at all levels to this course.  And I also can never come to Adjumani without commending the local government and the communities for being very generous and hosting of refugees”, Amb. Albjerg said.

“We know that you have close to more than 230,637 refugees more than the host communities here. And that is in no way something that can be taken for granted that you continue to host the refugees in such a generous a respectful manner. We know that you are under immense pressure at the moment, financially and with increasing inflows”, she added.

On the campaign, H.E. Singe further stressed that “We are here as part of a campaign. We call it Women Uganda 2025+. You may wonder what that means. But it is an attempt to put an emphasis on the rights and opportunities of women in Uganda, but to try to do it from a slightly different angle. We realized that we were mainly talking to women, and were almost creating a situation where women became the enemies of men.  Young women became the enemies of young men in terms of power struggle and attention. And we don’t see that is a very productive way of going forward,”

Meanwhile, the SAY Programme plays a vital role in increasing access to and utilization of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) services for young people aged 10–24, including those in refugee settlements and host communities.

The Strengthening Adolescents and Youth (SAY) Programme is a vital initiative focused on increasing access to and utilization of SRHR and SGBV services for young people, including those in refugee settlements, across five districts in Uganda.

Ms. Kristine Blokhus, UNFPA Country Representative, emphasized the strategic alignment of the initiative.

“The SAY Programme is a model for integrated development and humanitarian support. The inclusion of our male champions alongside the Ambassador ensures that we are actively engaging men and boys as allies to accelerate progress toward ending GBV and achieving zero preventable maternal deaths and zero unmet need for family planning,” Blokhus said.

Romney Blessing, a member of Alere Secondary School Health club, said that “When I heard about the school Health club. I joined it, and the club really impacted me a lot. It gave me the right. I have the right to speak in front of people to express my feeling, to speak in public, and take good decision for myself and for the school and for everybody in the school,”

Mawut Thon Mawut, one of the role model boys, highlighted the impact of the project on the youths within the settlements and the host communities.

“Actually, in our community men for them they just to stay at home. They don’t do anything. While women, they are the one doing house work like cooking. For us men in our tribe we don’t cook. You just wait for the food. You come and eat. And if there’s no food, you’ll end up beating the wife. At least now there’s change in our community,” said Mawut.

Mawut also explained that “previously people used to fight every day and night. But nowadays there’s a reduction of violence. Boys they are seriously helping their sisters. Seeing the culture where we came from, boys are not supposed to do house works. But since this program came in, at least 50% of the population are now understanding,”.

Kabange Eva, 25, a mother of three children and refugee from Alere settlement narrated her experience before and after the project.

“My husband used to beat me almost every day but when the role model men went to advise him, we are now having peace at home. Previously, our men are not helping us even you are sick or pregnant because they say after all I have paid fifty cows for your bride price and you must work because there is a culture of parents marrying off their young girls to get more cattle but now it’s not too much and at least our men are also accompanying us to the health centers for antenatal and even when we are sick they take us for treatment and also do house work sometimes”, Eva narrated.

Droma William, a member of role model men, who is a Ugandan and a beneficiary of the SAY project said that “Before this project came, we don’t interact with the refuges like today, we don’t associate So, I thank the government of Denmark support and for bringing this project to us. Because you can see really there are changes amount from before this project came, we used to fight with our brothers and wives and now the fighting level instability between us dropped from 80% to now 30%.  So, thank you very much, especially the implementing partner. I wish you continue to support us so that there will be total co-existing between the host communities and the refugees,”.

The interactions with the Ambassador, the UNFPA Representative, and the acclaimed activists were intended to inspire and challenge young boys and girls to become agents of change. The visit enhanced visibility for the Women Uganda 2025+ campaign and generated compelling content to strengthen advocacy efforts, aligning with the focus on girls’ leadership and the role of male champions in communities.

END.