Adolescents Use Poetry to Amply Voices of Young Girls

Teenage girls have asked the public to respect their decisions on issues related to sexuality irrespective of their age. The girls echoed this on Saturday through their competitive creative art pieces in poetry and story writing.

The Poetry and Storytelling day competition is an open space for adolescent creative writers aged (10-19 yrs) majoring in poetry and storytelling. It was organized by Public Health Ambassadors Uganda in commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child.

For close to two years of lockdown, many teenage girls below 18 years have been impregnated and forced into marriage marriages.

Valerie Carolyn Nakaye 12, from Wakiso who was the youngest participant, in her presentation “I am Ugandan Girl”, narrated how her mother’s dream of becoming a lawyer was shattered when she got married at a young age.

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Anita Muhindo 17 from Kasese says that society has portrayed young girls as weak. She says that this is the time teenage girls should make their voices heard.

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Patricia Ejanga, another participant, said that girls should we should not be silenced, but allowed to express themselves.

Dr Jean Irene Nabakooza a parent to one of the participants says that adolescents without involving them didn’t know what they were thinking nor their opinions on given subjects.

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Lillibet Namakula the team leader, Public Health Ambassadors Uganda says that the competition helps adolescents to come out and express themselves in a way that allows their voices to be shared.

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