A national student conference held at Kyambogo on May 14 delivered a clear message: awareness campaigns are not enough. Students want policies, budgets, and actual services — not posters.
Five years ago, Brenda Katushabe was 20 years old, studying at Uganda Christian University, and watching things unfold around her that nobody was officially talking about.
“Campus life was perceived as freedom, but with that freedom came stories and issues we could no longer ignore,” she said. “I witnessed friends being abused, an increase in new HIV infections, gender-based violence cases, mental health struggles, and substance abuse within university communities.”
She went on to found the Own Your Future Campus Initiative. On May 14, that initiative brought those same issues to the national stage — hosting a two-day National Students Conference at Kyambogo University under the theme “Institutionalising Students’ Health: From Awareness to Action.”
The conference brought together students from Makerere University, Uganda Christian University, and Kyambogo University, alongside officials from the Ministries of Education, Health and Gender, civil society organisations, and development partners.
The message from students was consistent: they already know about the problems. What they need now are systems that actually help.
Katushabe said students continue to face growing risks including HIV vulnerability, mental health challenges, gender-based violence, sexual harassment, and substance abuse — and that many students fail to report abuse or seek help because universities still lack effective reporting systems and accessible support services.
That last point is critical. It is not simply that the problems exist. It is that the infrastructure to respond to them barely does. A student who experiences sexual harassment needs somewhere to report it, someone qualified to receive that report, and confidence that something will happen as a result. On many Ugandan campuses, none of those three things can be reliably guaranteed.
Katushabe called for increased investment in youth-led advocacy programmes, saying student organisations remain critical in linking young people to service providers and policymakers. “Some providers are disconnected from the beneficiaries of their services. That’s why youth-led school clubs are vital because they serve as voices, bridges, and channels of communication between students, service providers and policymakers,” she said.
Kyambogo University Guild President Adama Emmanuel urged universities to move beyond awareness campaigns and implement practical interventions that directly support student well-being. “As I reflect on the theme, ‘From Awareness to Action,’ I believe awareness alone is not enough,” he said.
His point about mental health is particularly sharp. He cited research showing that although many students are aware of mental health services, only a few seek professional help because of stigma, financial barriers, and limited access to counsellors and mental health professionals. Must
In other words: students know help exists in theory. They just cannot access it in practice — because of cost, because of shame, or because there are simply not enough counsellors to serve a student population of tens of thousands.
“The time has come to move from awareness to action. We must institutionalise student health within university policies, allocate dedicated budgets and implement programmes that prioritise student well-being,” Emmanuel said.
United Nations Population Fund Country Representative Kristine Blokhus delivered the keynote address, saying Uganda’s youthful population could become a major driver of national development if properly supported and protected. “Uganda has 46 million people, and 75% are under 30. If they are healthy, educated, skilled and employed, they can drive the country’s development. If not, progress stalls,” she said.
She also drew attention to something that happens in health facilities every day but rarely gets discussed: the attitude of health workers toward young people seeking sensitive care.
“When a girl seeks contraception or a teen asks about sexual health, your attitude determines whether they feel safe to seek help. The quality of care and support that vulnerable people receive depends less on systems and more on the attitudes of the individuals within those systems,” Blokhus said.
She also highlighted a silent reality on many campuses where students avoid health services because of stigma and fears around confidentiality, emphasising that a healthy campus must also be a safe and trusted space for every student.
Joshua Thembo called for stronger collaboration between government ministries, universities and civil society organisations, and was direct about the regulatory gap: “There are no comprehensive guidelines for health within university settings, and we urge the Ministry of Education to act swiftly in providing these.”
That absence of comprehensive health guidelines for university settings is not a small oversight. It means that what a university does — or does not do — about student mental health, HIV prevention, GBV response, or substance abuse is entirely at the discretion of individual institutions. Some take it seriously. Many do not. And without a national framework mandating minimum standards, students in under-resourced universities have no floor of protection to stand on.
Representing the Ministry of Education and Sports, Henry Semakula said the government continues to support age-appropriate health and life skills education in schools and universities, and emphasised the importance of mental health awareness and menstrual hygiene education in protecting young people from abuse.
The conference’s ask is not complicated. It comes down to three things: stronger university policies with teeth, dedicated funding for student health services, and youth-friendly support systems that students will actually use — because they are accessible, confidential, and free of judgment.
Awareness campaigns have been running on Ugandan campuses for years. Students know about HIV. They know about GBV. They know about mental health. What they do not always have is somewhere to go when those things happen to them.
That is the gap the conference was calling on universities — and the government — to close.
