The Transforming Employability for Social Change in East Africa (TESCEA) team, a project geared towards a holistic approach to growth and development of Gulu University held a meeting with the top university managers putting forward a plea to have consistent integration of gender concerns into the development and implementation of policies, plans, programs and projects at all levels in the university.
The Gulu University Vice Chancellor, Prof. George Ladaah Openjur is the project principal investigator (PI). This plea comes at a crucial time when more than 300 cases of violence have been recorded in at least 10 districts, with women and girls as the most vulnerable and this number is likely to spike even further if left unchecked. The university management was very welcoming of the idea and promised to positively respond.
The Gulu University Gender Mainstreaming Unit has a sub component called the Safer Universities Project that was launched in late 2019, a partnership between Makerere University and the UN Women Organization to eliminate sexual harassment, violence against women and promotion of sexual reproductive health and rights in all higher institutions of learning through fully incorporating students known as peer trainers.
These peer trainers were taken through vigorous training on matters pertaining to sexual reproductive health, the anti- sexual harassment policy and all related procedures to stop and or assist would be victims of such circumstances. 50 successful peer trainers were confirmed at time.
