By Joshua Mirondo, youth writer for Transition Earth.

At the age of 19, Martha (not her real name) is living with a mental disability in Uganda’s Odia, Arua district. She is a mother of two children, a 9-year-old and 4-year-old. Martha has no idea of who their fathers are and neither do the people with whom she lives. In 2021, her guardian heard about a program that was focused on preventing pregnancies among teenage girls and she enrolled her in it. Her guardian is always busy and cannot easily monitor Martha’s movement and actions. After all, she is the breadwinner of the family.

Martha is one of the beneficiaries of the In Their Hands program implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation in Kampala and Arua. It focuses on ways through which uptake of contraceptives among adolescent girls (15-19) can be increased to reduce the incidence of unintended pregnancies. The program has a unique platform called Tiko, developed by Triggerise, which young people use to make positive life decisions. The platform connects members’ needs to existing local providers, by building ecosystems of local health services, community organizations, and micro-entrepreneurs. The platform is available to any adolescent girl between the ages of 15 to 19 with a mobile device, through social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, SMS, and membership cards for those without mobile phones.

 

For the past 20 years, Uganda has witnessed high growth in the number of teenage pregnancies, and the outbreak of COVID-19 only made the situation worse. Measures to curb the pandemic, such as social distancing, led to the closure of schools where teenage girls were often next to their abusers. On many occasions these men subjected them to sexual gender-based violence that resulted in teenage pregnancies. Information gaps among teenagers are one of the reasons for teenage pregnancies as they engage in risky sexual behaviors with limited or no knowledge on how to safeguard themselves. These are some of the gaps that the In Their Hands program is closing using the TIKO platform.

The platform works in a way that a girl must be enrolled to use it. Enrollment can be done by a community mobilizer who goes out to the ground and speaks to girls about the Tiko membership and the Tiko Offer. It can also be done individually by a girl who owns a phone by sending the message ‘EROL’ to 8118.

 

Once the enrollment is done, a teenage girl on the platform will be able to access a family planning method of their choice and be advised by the health worker from registered Tiko pharmacies and clinics. It also gives the girl an opportunity to rate the service received. During interactions on the Tiko platform, the different actors in the Tiko system transact through Tiko Miles, with rewards for the girls and mobilizers and subsidies by Tiko providers. These rewards are earned and redeemed at local retailers, while the clinics and pharmacies are paid subsidies for the services offered and later cashed out.  This is a motivation to the girls as they can use their Tiko Miles to purchase any items that fall into the available range.

When asked about the impact of the program, Rowena Kamasai a program manager at Aga Khan Foundation said “…All stakeholders are aware of the huge need for support that teenage girls have. They are often not willing participants and have to bear the lifelong burden of unwanted pregnancies, with some getting pregnant as early as 10 years. Being able to support those who are doubly vulnerable, young girls with disabilities has been a highlight in this journey.”

For 3 months, the In Their Hands program has been able to reach over 5,000 teenage girls in Arua and Kampala with services.   And that’s great news for young women in need, such as Martha.