The Hoima district council speaker, James Mugenyi Mulindambura, had challenged the school-going students to desist from immoral acts which can ruin their future.

Speaking at the youth festival organised by Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) in Hoima City on Tuesday, Mulindambura underscored a couple of challenges affecting uneducated youth which come as a result of lack of education.

Mulindambura narrated how a lack of education has made a couple of youths become “centres of ignorance and poverty within society,” a situation he said is driven by bad behaviours including drug abuse, early marriages, and bad peer pressure while at school.

According to him, indulging in such behaviours is immoral since they pave no way for a better future.

“We have a couple of people who became centres of ignorance and poverty in our communities. As a result of the bad lifestyles they exhibited, including drug abuse, early marriages, and bad peer pressure, among others,” Mulindambura emphasised.

Negative behaviours, he said, will give no better future, urging students to desist from immoralities while still in their early years.

“Don’t involve yourselves in what does not concern you. Desist from early marriages which will spoil your future,” he warned.

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The youth festival comes at a time when Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) is phasing out the ‘Promise To’, a project aimed at improving reproductive health and rights among the marginalised youth who are both in and outside schools.

Tumwesige Bridget, an official from Reproductive Health Uganda, noted that the project focused on fighting against low self-esteem, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, early marriages, among other factors.

Over ten thousand youths who are in and out of school, she said, have benefited.

According to her, there have been reduced cases of school dropouts, early marriages, and teenage pregnancies.

Akugizibwe Kenneth, the Branch Executive Representative at Reproductive Health Uganda, Hoima, noted that failure by the community to understand the efforts of the program in promoting sexuality education still remains a bigger challenge to the organisation.

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He appreciated efforts by different stakeholders, including schools and government departments, during the period the organisation was executing the project.

Joyce Kangume, senior female teacher at Mandela SS Hoima, appreciated the RHU for the project, which she said has helped in reducing school dropouts, early marriages, and teenage pregnancies among youths.

Kobusinge Evelyn, the Assistant Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Hoima district, warned parents on child neglect, which she said is also a leading cause of sexuality

Twenty secondary schools, including Kakindo SS, St Thomas More SS, Buseruka SS, Greenshoots SS Kigorobya, Sir Tito Winyi SS, Kigorobya Seed, Buhanika Seed, and St Cyprian SS from Hoima district, participated.

Others are Bwikhya Muslim SS, Mandela SS, Premier SS, Hoima Central SS, Duhaga Secondary School, Kings High School, St Andrea Kahwa’s College and Kitara SS from Hoima City.