At the start of May Pepal delivered our first inperson programme since early 2020. Several of our corporate participants from Janssen Pharmaceuticals Companies of Johnson and Johnson had waited 3 years to travel to Uganda, here they share their reflections on the programme….
It’s our first week back in Belgium and the Netherlands and emotions are still running high after our adventures in Uganda.
Our programme mission was to contribute to reducing the HIV epidemic and the number of teenage pregnancies amongst hard to reach and vulnerable adolescents in rural Kamwenge and Kitagwenda districts.
More than a year ago, three teams composed of Janssen colleagues and leaders working in Uganda (healthcare workers, social workers and NGOs), joined forces to set up innovations (small-scale initiatives involving national partners). Each team motivated adolescents to participate in various activities near schools and health centers.
Team Kamwenge engaged adolescents through passion fruit farming. The adolescents living with HIV learned valuable skills that could help them generate income, while at the same time being coached on taking their HIV medication.
Team Nyabbani ran football and netball tournaments. At the tournaments, the adolescents were provided with sexual reproductive health education, access to family planning services, and HIV screening and testing.
Team Rukunyu set up youth clubs where adolescents could make solar oven creation, take part in cooking classes, sports tournaments, make reusable sanitary pads and set up change rooms for girls to be used during their menstruation period.
The main goal of these activities was to bring the adolescents to the schools and health centers to receive reliable sexual reproductive health (SRH) knowledge, screen for HIV and provide medication where needed from health staff. The innovations also created opportunities to educate parents, teachers, religious leaders, and to organise adolescent peer coaching sessions.
During our week in Uganda, we explored not only our own, but also previous innovations created by the Waamu programme and focussed on identifying gaps and opportunities for the future.
We had classroom sessions on different leadership concepts including the 15 elements in the leadership framework and a growth mindset. We covered curiosity and active listening, systems leadership, techniques for influence and advocacy and more. These learnings provided us with new insights that we will take back into our day jobs. They will also not only support our Ugandan teammates in further developing sustainable initiatives in their districts, but also to become the leaders of tomorrow!
The two days of discovery visits to schools, health centers, and communities were the most impactful part of the trip for us. We learned about the impact of our innovations and had the chance to interact with many key partners: adolescents, adolescent peer leaders, parents, teachers, religious leaders, health ambassadors, local and regional health and education leaders, and other organizations working in Kamwenge and Kitagwenda districts.
We witnessed the magnificent accomplishments made by our Ugandan teammates and the increased engagement of all partners in improving current innovations and their willingness to contribute to future ones.
We concluded the week with presentations to executives from our partners organisations, including government leaders and NGOs, to get their support (and potentially some resources). We explained the changes we were able to make with the innovations, our key learnings, and our recommendations for scaling up in a sustainable manner.
After three successful pitches came the inescapable goodbye to our Ugandan teammates; it was not easy after a very intensive journey together.
We are still overwhelmed by what we learned during this journey, including the very difficult conditions in the districts we visited. We were impressed by the perseverance shown by those involved and by the will of the adolescents to work towards a brighter future. We feel it is tremendously important to continue working on these goals as there are still huge strides which need to be made and the need is extremely high. Get ready because this journey just got started! 😊
A big thank you to the Janssen caretakers and to the Pepal staff, Sarah, Dolly, Ingrid, Benita, and the whole Baylor team including Conrad, who guided us through the programme.
A big thank you to our teammates for the great work they do, for opening up to us, for sharing insights in the Ugandan culture, for laughing and crying with us.
Beatriz, Karin, Lara, Leo, Niels, Peggy, Kim (Waamu Cohort 3, May 2023)