Students' Personal Testimonies

I am Adile Leonard, a student of Kako SS. I joined WSWM when my sexual desires were at their climax.

Before  joining WSWM, any interaction with females regardless of their age, stirred up violent sexual feelings within me. The shortest glance at a lady or a girl would be enough to get me making romantic stories in my head or licking my lips to ensure my face is presentable to her and I would do so many other things that indicated sexual attraction.

I understood girls and women as sexual partners and this greatly hindered my free association with the opposite sex. I could hardly maintain a conversation with girls for any meaningful length of time. I even found myself flirting with the beautiful female teachers in our school.

When I joined the WSWM, I got to know everyone else whether male or female had sexual attraction to the opposite sex but it was upon them to work out their ways of controlling their sexual desires. Most importantly was for me to develop a respect for other people around me. This made the female cease to appear as mere sex symbols to me and slowly the problem faded away. The WSM thus helped me to solve a problem with my sexuality which had started affecting my academic performance especially with the female teachers.

Even before the age of 12, I  had developed a deep voice. This came with some difficulties for me especially among my friends who found my deep voice an amusing issue and would always make fun of me. This greatly lowered my self-esteem.

When I joined WSWM, I learnt in Lesson 3: Is Your body changing too? , that body changes are normal, they happen in everyone though at different times and that there was no need for me to worry. I also learnt that many more body changes were yet to come and when they did come, I was no longer alarmed as I would have been if I had not joined the WSWM. I got prepared for the pubic hair, the beards and the unwanted body odour which encourage me to improve my hygiene.

I am Nagaba Chris, 16 years, a student of S5 in Mbarara Army Boarding Secondary School. I joined WSWM in 2008 after going through a stressful experience.

I like WSWM mainly because of Lesson 4: Friendship and Relationship which not only advises the young against sexual relationships but also consoles those who have passes through experiences like mine.

I had a relationship with a girl whom I trusted so much and had even at one time promised her to be my future wife. We were so close to each other that all our parents knew about our relationship. Our parents did not support us to be in such young girl-boy relationships but for us we refused. We continued in our relationship. Because for me I had decided not to have sex with her, she decided to get another boyfriend she used to have sex with secretly.

She then got pregnant. Her parents wanted me to answer about the pregnancy but because I was at boarding school by then, I was a bit safe. The girl decided to abort because she never wanted me to know about it.

When I went for holidays, I was told about all what had happened so I approached her but she denied everything. I decided to drop her but it was not easy to break the relationship and I got a lot of stress which was greatly affected my academic performance.

When I joined WSWM, Lesson 4: Friendship and Relationships counseled me and urged me to wait till I finish my studies. WSWM has helped me to think about the future and not the present. As young people, we need to wait to go into boy-girl relationships until we have finished our studies.

I am Tumusiime Ishmael, a member of World Starts With Me (WSWM), Muntuyera High School. I have never regretted becoming a member of WSWM because of what I have learned from the program and because of how it has greatly changed my life. I am glad that I can also help my fellow youth to overcome the challenges that come their way.

Since the World Starts With Me is a program that is largely based on computer skills, I got to know how to use the computer and the Internet. I can now get a lot of information about the WSWM lessons from the Internet and especially the WSWM online support centre ( http://www.schoolnetuganda.sc.ug/wswmonlinesupport/). The more information I get, the more I discover things I was ignorant about which are not taught in class but are very essential to my life.

I like in particular Lesson 3: Is your body changing too?, Lesson 2: Emotional ups and downs and Lesson 7: Sexuality and Love.

By the time I joined World Starts With Me, I had a girlfriend whom I thought loved me. Through Lesson 7: Sexuality and Love, I was able to know that this girl had no love for me but instead she was bound to destroy my future since she always demanded for sex. I feared early pregnancy and the possible infection of HIV/AIDS since we had not gone for a test. I had got all this information from WSWM.

Some boys, I called my friends used to put me on pressure to go on and have sex with my “girlfriend” but thanks to WSWM, through the lessons of Friendships and Relationships, Sexuality and Love, Pregnancy for boys and girls and HIV/AIDs, I discovered all the ill intentions of these people.

I used to get mixed feelings and thoughts in my mind but I got the confidence and courage when I understood the lessons on Emotional ups and downs. I learnt how to deal with the boys whom I called my friends and my ex-girlfriend without hurting them. Instead I invited them to join WSWM.

I have made new friends from WSWM members from different schools both boys and girls with whom I share experiences and talk about challenges of growth and how to overcome them. I am happily working towards a happy and enjoyable future.

Sincere thanks to the founders and sponsors of WSWM which has come to save the youth like me.
Long live WSWM
Long live SchoolNet Uganda
Long live World Population Foundation

I am Bakwanye Kalumba Rebecca, a student of Kako SSS. I joined the World Starts With Me in 2009 when it was introduced in our school. The WSWM has greatly changed my life as a teenager.

As a teenager, I have benefited mostly from the counseling sessions where we talk about relationships, emotional ups and downs and pregnancy. We talk about different kinds of relationships like student-teacher relationships, student-student relations and boy-girl relationships. One should respect others in order to be respected.

Before joining the WSWM club, I had a negative attitude towards boys. Neither did I want to talk to them nor did I want to share anything with them but the WSWM club opened my eyes because I now have good relationships with good intentions with the boys and know that relating with boys does not necessary mean having sexual relationship with them.

The WSWM has also helped me to control my emotional ups and downs and to overcome some of my weaknesses. I was too shy to talk to people but the various club meetings where we have to express ourselves among others have helped me to overcome my shyness and I am growing to be amore confident person in front of people.

Through the discussion sessions we have had on AIDS and early pregnancy I have learnt the many effects of early pregnancy like abortion which can lead to death and the effects of HIV/AIDS as a disease which leads to accumulations of many more diseases. This has given me courage to abstain whenever I think of the effects. I have even joined the abstinence club in our school.

I am a Ugandan male aged 16. I am currently an In-School WSWM  Student peer educator in my school Mbarara Army Boarding SS. My life has greatly changed since I joined WSWM in 2007.
My father died of some natural cause which I never understood well since I was in Primary 3 by then. Life became so hard that my mother could not take care of me and my siblings. She decided to take me to my uncle where I suffered a lot.

One day, as I was washing a flask, it accidently slid out of my hands, fell and  broke. My uncle who had seen the incident started abusing me. Nothing hurt me more than he telling me AIDS had killed my father.
I cried the whole day and did not even eat food. That night, while I was still crying, he told me I was also HIV positive and the whole of my family would die in the same way my father died. This forced me to run back to my mother’s place. I narrated to her the whole story and she comforted me.

The threat of dying of HIV/AIDS remained in my mind till Senior 2 when WSWM was introduced in our school. I joined WSWM and  I learnt a lot from Lesson 9: STIs and HIV/AIDS and Lesson 10: HIV/AIDS you have a role to play.

One day I felt a lot of pain in my sexual organ while urinating. This worried so much but because of the confidence I had gained from WSWM, I approached the WSWM Teacher Support Specialist, Mr. Patrick Tumwesigye to take me for some medical checkup. I never feared to go for an HIV test so as to know my status.
To my surprise, I was found to be HIV negative and not without any STI. This made me happy and I remain thankful to WSWM. This gave me more courage and I encouraged my mother and siblings to go for HIV test. They were all found to be negative too.

I have learnt how it hurts to discriminate those with HIV/AIDS and to those who don’t know their HIV status, please go and test because I now live a relaxed life.

To my peers, it is never too late to excel, never lose hope and stand to respect those infected with HIV/AIDS because they need you and you need them.

Long live WSWM because I will live to remember you for what you have made me.

I am aspiring to become a Counselor in future as my dream because counselors play a great role in our lives.  I have started my journey by being an in-school WSWM student peer educator and promise to keep the ball rolling. I live to stand by my words.

Lastly, how you feel if someone you trust tells you that “You are HIV positive. Never serve me and my children meals however hungry they are”