Women enjoy self-care moments at youth festival

Over 200 women from different walks of life enjoyed sisterhood and self-care moments alongside motivating talks at the National Youth Festival from August 22-23, 2023. 

The women came from corporate and business spaces. Others were stay-at-home mothers, students, politicians and civil society actors. They converged at the feminist village organised by Femme Forte Uganda at the Akamwesi Gardens under the theme; Your story matters.

The participants enjoyed self-care activities in a well-decorated therapeutic tent. It had free make-up sessions, several games and a chill corner.

Some of the participants during the event.

In addition, a pop-up wellness shop stocked with various organic products was set up to indulge young women in taking care of their bodies.

The village also had a healing corner with free therapy sessions. This was intended to provide a safe space for participants to heal from the traumas that tormented their mental health.

Penelope Sanyu, a team leader at Femme Forte Uganda, says the village is an innovative space that will go a long way in the advancement of gender equality, protection of women’s rights and empowering women to localize Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 by promoting their participation and leadership.

In that faith, the organisers also held parallel sessions on mental health, feminist activism, reproductive justice and body politics where they discussed issues related to women’s absolute control over their bodies and reproductive rights.

In partnership with doctors from Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), they explored aspects of family planning and donated free emergency pills.

On the second day, there was a media training themed; Telling Her Story.

Various media practitioners were engaged on how best to tell stories of survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and involving more women in media spaces to tell stories of fellow women in a sensitive manner.

Sanyu says girls and women grapple with SGBV every day, but few stories are published. She adds that accurate reporting of survivors’ stories is a big contributor to achieving Justice for women.

“It is vital for media practitioners to have unbiased views and to fact check while dealing with SGBV issues when reporting,” she says.

“We hope that more stories of women and girls will be told in a manner that truly represents them, and in a way that upholds their dignity and pave a way for justice for them,” she adds.