Consultative meeting in Older Women SRHR Issues in Light of Covid19 Crisis virtual via zoom.

Participants were taken through the minimum packages of reproductive health,safe motherhood, including post-abortion care, family planning, adolescent health, STls including HIVIAIDS, reproductive organ cancer, gender-based violence, menopause and andropause, infertility prevention and treatment, obstetric fistulae.

Helping older women to understand naming of their body and how it works in their Life like:

• Oestrogens are a group of hormones useful in the normal sexual and reproductive development in women Produced mainly in the ovaries (small amounts are produced by adrenal glands and fat tissue)
• Breast development in puberty, pregnancy and   milk secretion in postpartum period
• Uterus: Growth and thickening of the endometrial lining in preparation for pregnancy
• Vagina and vulva: support the growth of mucosa cells
• Bones: growth of long bones in puberty; protects the bones by reducing calcium loss
• Heart and blood vessels: controls cholesterol levels and reduces risk of coronary artery disease

Older women supported to understand their fears while facing menopause and discussing them in details.

• Nearing death, Mobility challenges, Loneliness, Loss of income, General poor health and being inactive

The older women were also supported to understand their exciting moments while facing menopause about

• No menses, no expenditure on pads, having grandchildren, Being alone

AGHA also coached the older women on life skills development hinged on future planning.

The above challenges of life during menopause induced the discussion on the panning for life after retirement

The trainer encouraged members to start saving with the Mazima retirement saving scheme. The scheme is regulated by Uganda retirement benefit authority. The saving encourages the 70:30 model of saving where 70 of the penny received is saved for retirement and 30 can be accessed for other use. The scheme also encourages members to save one hundred thousand shillings per week saving.

International menopause day commemoration (National consultative meeting on older women SRHR issues in light of covid 19 crisis)

Older women also helped understand what the law say about their fate in SRHR access;

• A woman above 50 years is believed to have misbehavior to seek for abortion services, if a woman is still spotting having period.
• Abortion in Uganda is only restricted on grounds that it is performed by a licensed medical doctor in a situation where the woman’s life is deemed to be at risk.
• The laws in Uganda does not consider legal and safe abortion including situations of incest, rape, teenage pregnancy, mental health illness which may lead to unwanted and unplanned Pregnancies.
• lacking access to safe and legal abortions, many of them turn to unsafe abortion practices, such as self-induced abortions

The older women were also taking through to understand their reproductive health rights.

• Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in international human rights documents and national laws. The reproductive rights include:
• The right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children.
• The right to information regarding sexual and reproductive health;
• The right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health;
• The ‘right to make decisions concerning reproduction, free of discrimination, coercion and violence.