Establishing Youth Friendly Services at BCH

About

Bwindi Community Hospital (BCH) is a Church of Uganda hospital in south west Uganda, serving a remote rural population of 100,000 people. Establishing Youth Friendly Services has been part of BCH’s vision for many years. Addressing the health needs of this age group is seen as an important contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of the whole community. More than half of Uganda’s population are under 18 years old. Only 20% of the hospital catchment area are educated above primary level education. The teenage pregnancy rate in Uganda is 24% and the unmet contraceptive need in adolescents is 30%.

There are many reasons why youth can find it difficult to attend the hospital. A youth friendly clinic is going to open to address some of these barriers. This will run twice a week in the Multi-Purpose Hall which is under construction. The clinic will provide a broad range of services which will give ‘problem confidentiality’ for those attending i.e. others in the community or waiting room will not know what they are attending for. The clinic will be run by current BCH staff. Training will be given to all hospital staff about how to be youth friendly.

Event details

Establishing Youth Friendly Services at BCH

Money raised will be used for one-off capital costs such as signage, youth friendly t-shirts and badges for staff and recreational activities for the waiting area. Fundraising will also be used for running costs. BCH is currently 60% donor-dependent, relying heavily on external grants and donors for operating costs.

The service could be expanded in the future to include outreach into the community e.g. using village health workers, satellite clinics and schools.

A feasibility study was carried out in 2016 to obtain views of the community and hospital staff. Please contact us if you’d like more information about this.

The proposed services are in line with the government commitment in the Ugandan Adolescent Health and Policy guidelines which states “All adolescents are eligible for health services. The services shall be provided in a friendly environment and manner that meets their needs regardless of gender, age, religion, marital and education status.”
 

Event date

13-November-2018 00:00  - 
13-November-2019 00:00

Event type

Establishing Youth Friendly Services

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