Voices of Female Youths Living with HIV/AIDS on their Experiences regarding access and Utilisation of Contraceptives: A case of Kawempe Division Kampala City, Uganda.

Abstract: This study aimed at documenting experiences of FYLWHA regarding their access and utilisation of contraceptives with reference to Kawempe division of Kampala city-Uganda. Basically the study was guided by three objectives i.e. to find out the sources of contraceptives for FYLHA in Kawempe division, to examine the factors for and against access and utilisation of contraceptives by FYLWHA and to come up with recommendations on how to enhance access and use of contraceptives in Kawempe division. Research questions that helped generate information for the study were as follow; how do FYLWHA access contraceptives/ information on contraceptives? Do national policy provisions on reproductive health care manifest into real services at lower/ community level? Which are the strength/ facilitating factors for FYLWHA in consumption of contraceptives? Which are the barriers and how do they hinder FYLWHA from consuming contraceptives? How does stigma affect the access and utilisation of contraceptives by FYLWHA? What motivates the health seeking behaviour of FYLWHA for contraception? How does gender influence contraceptive use by FYLWHA? A case study design was used in collaboration with the qualitative approach. Methods of data collection that were employed under this approach included; semi-structured Individual interviews, Focus Group Discussions and a few relevant Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools. The gathered material was analysed under the blue prints of Narrative analysis, qualitative content analysis in combination with thematic analysis. The study’s theoretical framework was composed of four theories including the health belief model, the social interaction theory, the gender based perspective and the stigmatisation theory. Among other things, study results indicated that the public hospitals, private clinics and NGOs are the major sources of contraceptives but for some reasons, FYLWHA mainly buy their own pills from private clinics compared to other sources. Major facilitating factors for contraceptive use were; education and sensitisation, availability of most contraceptives on market, free contraceptives and Privacy and confidentiality assurance. Barriers to contraception use were multi-dimensional in nature i.e. institutional, cultural, religious, economical, misconception and health related. It can be concluded therefore that experiences of FYLWHA while accessing and using contraceptives are not very different from what any other youth is likely to experience save for some unique health related weakness triggered by some contraceptives and also the influence of stigma. This therefore clearly shows that like any other young people in their most productive milestone of life, FYLWHA possess contraceptive needs that need to be met and all duty bearers need to ensure that they play their role to ensure this need and right is fulfilled especially by eliminating all social, cultural, economic, religious, and institutional barriers that hinder the access and use of contraceptives.