0 – 75+ = Your life journey 

April 2018…. Allow me take you back in time, to this very interesting training I was part of

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Organized by Reach A Hand Uganda and on invitation from them,
We were all gathered in Ntinda
Journos, Law practitioners, sexuality education specialists, bloggers, writers….simply put, educators of all kinds
For 2 days

To learn more about Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, first of all
Then, learn about the law (traditional, national, regional and international) and what it says about Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
Most all, incorporate the two, as we report on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in our communities, country and world, in general

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You can imagine how many familiar faces I saw there, that day
Resulting from the numerous interactions we’ve had over the years in this field
The food…..which is usually my closest friend at any one time….bruh!
It was to die for….

There was this one particular exercise we had, among others of course …..AGREE or DISAGREE
I strongly believe, till now, that it was about “busting” all these myths, facts and misconceptions we had about SRHR.
A number of questions were asked us, to which there were two papers labeled agree / disagree at either end of the circle, to stand against in defence of or against
One question that I can’t forget…. Sex before marriage is good.

You can imagine the kind of battle we had in the moment….being in the world we are in today

Then, there was the ice-breaker where we teamed up in two’s
And all we had to do, was share about that one intimate secret of a crush we had back in school
Oh boy….another hill for many of us to climb, you can imagine…. The anxiety and numerous elephants in the room at that time

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Try asking yourself this….what comes to your mind when you hear of the word, “sexuality”? See for yourself what came to our minds, at the time

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Just when you think you know enough, you actually realize you don’t….
Take this, for example… what becomes of a penis in a baby-girl is the clitoris!
Yyyaassssss!!!! I can see you flinching your eyes and squinting your face for clarity of this….that’s how I was, that moment when Zai mentioned this.

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Came day-2, of the training

This is where most of the unlearning came from
I’d love to take your attention to the numerous yellow cards displayed on the floor
They had numbers inscribed unto them
Representing ages in life, of humans
And our transitions in our sexual lives

From 0 to 75 years and more, like the title for this one says
So, we were divided into groups that had a task of listening out to a certain human behaviour ~ ranging from conceiving to the stop of sperm-manufacturing and assign it to a particular age or age group, listed on the yellow cards we talked about
Using orange sticky-notes or pages or whatever you choose to call them

Notice how some cards are “literally” empty
And others are so full, buzzing with activity?
That says a lot about what’s going on around us, right?
As kids, adolescents, young adults, parents, grandparents

I want to leave you with a task….Look around those cards…
Identify the gaps that exist, find those answers ASAP and make yourself some peace and quiet for your olden days, for Pitt’s sake!