GULU-Gender Base violence has been accredited as the most contributing factors that’s enabling successful early pregnancy among young girls in northern Uganda
This is in accordance to the research presentation done buy some of the Gulu University students during the 5th Gulu university annual research conference recently
According to the report, over 63 per cent of teenagers dropped out from school due to the high level of gender bases violence in their families arising from several community household Factors
Stella Achiro the senior Community Development Officer Amuru District Local Government says they experience a lot of cases of teenage pregnancy within the district and resulting from gender base violence in the community which are mostly domestic violence, land related, cases drug abuse, physical violence, denial responsibility among others and all these forms tends to create inconvenient environment for young girls to live in comfortably fostering them to rush for early marriages leading to teenage pregnancies.
Shs further said as the district they are emphasizing on community sensitization and uses of law as an intervention to curb down the raising cases.
Amuru District community Development Office receives from 30 to 35 reported cases of teenage pregnancy after every six months yearly
The chairman Omoro District Local Government Peter Okello Douglas Okao revealed during an engagement with him that the current teenage pregnancy rates in the recently newly created Omoro district is standing at 28 per cent per annum which is higher than the national Average of 25 per cent he said the percentage is very scaring since it has higher rates than any other districts in northern Uganda which is standing at 27 per cent
He added that that in the year 2015/17 the survey report that was conducted focusing on retention and school dropout rates in northern Uganda , Omoro district reported the highest number of teenage pregnancies which is blamed on gender base violence , war , poverty , cultural norms and beliefs
The major factors that lead to 28 per cent teenage pregnancy is the two decades of war in northern Uganda, which led to child-headed families in our community, who are not able to provide for themselves and run away from family discomforts is early marriage gearing them to teenage pregnancies .
Today the teenage pregnancy which occurred on young girl’s adolescence ages 12 to 19 years old is putting most of them at risk of pregnancy complications like unsafe abortion, childbirth and death.