Risdel Kasasira
16 August 2008
Women parliamentarians have embarked on a health and maternity sensitisation drive targeting wives of soldiers. Under their umbrella group, the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association, the MPs launched the exercise at the First Division headquarters in Kakiri, Wakiso District, with a call to the combatants' wives to practise family planning, avoid contracting HIV and conserve the environment.
Capt Grace Kyomugisha, a UPDF MP, said Parliament had drawn up a programme to teach mothers in army barracks how to eradicate poverty and reproductive health. The exercise, Capt Kyomugisha observed, would also reach out to female combatants and their spouses.
The Bundibugyo Woman MP, Jane Alisemera, told the over 100 women in Kakiri that they should only have children by choice and not by chance.
"If you want to live longer, stop producing by mistake," Ms Alisemera counselled.
The Ntenjeru North MP, Sarah Nyombi, advised the female combatants to prioritise antenatal care if they are to produce healthy babies.
"Don't lie back and relax during pregnancy. If you wait and come to the hospital after you have developed complications, it will be too late. You will die," she warned.
The mothers, who came from the Presidential Guard Brigade, Military Police and Chieftaincy of military Intelligence, complained that antenatal services are expensive.
"Some of us don't have transport to take us to Bombo or Mbuya where we are supposed to get treatment. Matters are worsened by the fact that most of the times our husbands are away," lamented Sylvia Nantongo, whose husband works with the Military Police.
Ms Nantongo told the MPs and the First Division Commander, Brig. Burundi Nyamunywanisa, that the mothers have opted for traditional birth attendants. Some of the women also accused their husbands of not being receptive to family planning.
"There are situations when your husband tells you 'I don't want those pills in my house' and when you give birth, he tells you 'those are your kids'. We get confused," Annette Abilinga from Kakiri narrated.
In response, the Director of Public Health in the UPDF, Lt. Col. Dr. Sam Kasule, said the army needed more funding to equip its hospitals with all drugs, especially ARVs.
He said condoms are given to soldiers freely to check HIV spread and help in family planning. Ms Florence Kaba from Airforce in Entebbe said condoms were not an effective family planning tool. "Your husband will use a condom for the first one week and later abandon them," she said.
Ms Rebecca Mugume, a senior social development officer in the UPDF, told the soldiers' spouses to form cooperatives and engage in income-generating projects. "To improve welfare, the first thing is prioritisation and planning," she said.
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