The Makerere University School of Women and Gender Studies launched the 16 days of activism to end gender based violence. This year’s theme is UNiTE! END Violence against Women and Girls.

The year’s activities will comprise intercollege debates running over three weeks, a movie screening and a mobile exhibition. The intercollege debates will be moderated by the Makerere University Debating Union, while the mobile exhibition has been offered by UNWomen.

The Launch brought together 85 of the 105 students from Makerere University and Makerere University Business School who applied to participate in the intercollege debates, volunteer moderators from FIDA-U. Presentations made at the launch covered several themes including: Young Activism and Peer Participation; A History of the Women’s Struggle in Uganda; Origin of the 16 Days of Activism and Strides on Ending Violence Against Women at Makerere University.

The presentations were followed by Q&A sessions, where the student participants asked questions relating the presentation themes, security of students who speak up against violence at Makerere University and how they can combat violence against women and girls at Makerere University, nationally and in our homes. The role of male students was applauded and emphasised.

This week the Makerere Debating Union is going to train the debaters and assessors over a three day period (Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) in preparation for the debate rounds starting with the quarter and semi finals on Saturday 3^rd , December 2022.
The key partners to this event were:

1. NextGen Women Initiative
2. UNWomen in Uganda
3. Makerere University Debating Union
4. FIDA-Uganda
5. National Association for Women’s Action in Development and
6. Makerere University