By Esther Chelangat Labu
Amina was nineteen when she first walked into a health centre with a question about her own body. It should have been ordinary, a young woman seeking information about her health. Instead, it took her weeks to find the courage.
She worried about being judged. She wondered whether what she was experiencing was normal and imagined the questions, whispers and assumptions that might follow. So she waited. She searched the internet. She asked a friend. She kept some questions to herself.
Amina’s story is not unusual. Across Uganda, young people have questions about their bodies, sexuality, relationships, contraception, menstruation, consent, HIV and sexually transmitted infections. Yet many still struggle to find accurate information and services without shame, stigma or judgment.
This is why World Sexual Health Day matters.
Sexual health is more than the absence of disease. It is about having the information, freedom, safety and support to make informed decisions about our bodies and lives. It means accessing healthcare without discrimination, understanding consent, choosing if and when to have children, and living free from violence, coercion and stigma.
For young people, access to sexual and reproductive health and rights can shape the direction of their lives. Accurate information can help prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Understanding consent can help someone recognise an unhealthy or abusive relationship. Access to contraception and HIV prevention can give young people greater control over their health and future.
But information alone is not enough.
Services must be accessible, affordable, confidential and youth-friendly. Health workers need to listen without judgment. Communities need to challenge harmful beliefs and stigma. And institutions responsible for health must be accountable for ensuring that young people can actually access the services and information they are entitled to.
Young people must also be more than recipients of services. They should have a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect their lives. Their experiences, ideas and solutions should inform policies, programmes and services. Creating space for young people to lead is not simply about representation; it is about recognising that they understand many of the challenges they are being asked to solve.
We must also recognise that not everyone experiences sexual health in the same way. Poverty, gender inequality, disability, location and stigma can create additional barriers to information and care. Ensuring sexual health for all therefore requires us to address the systems and social norms that leave some people further behind.
Nobody should have to earn the right to feel healthy, safe, informed and confident in their own body.
Amina should not have needed weeks to find the courage to ask a simple question. The next young person should not either.
Sexual health should not be a reward for being wealthy, older, married or lucky enough to find a welcoming health worker.
It is a right. And a right only matters when everyone can access it, exercise it and claim it without fear.
Esther Chelangat Labu is the President of the Youth Advisory Committee at SRHR Alliance Uganda.
