I am Vivien Namazzi, formely an S6 student at St. Joseph’s Girls SS, Nsambya.
The World Starts With Me (WSWM) program was introduced in my school in 2006 by two trained teachers that are Miss Ayebare Lillian and Mr. Senyonga Francis. And I joined WSWM because we were told it is computer based and it would teach us about the Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) issues which I wanted to learn about especially HIV/AIDS, pregnancies which are major problems to the girl child of today.

WSWM lessons that were most useful to me and most useful to the other students.

Lesson10 (HIV/AIDS- You have a role to play too) and Lesson11 (Love shouldn’t hurt – sexual abuse), were most important to me as they talked about the issues I liked most and I had researched about for long. They also gave me some skills and learnt how to live with various problems basing on this knowledge.
Lesson 3 (Is your body changing too) was most important to the S1 & S2 students. Other lessons like 10, 11 & 4 (Friendship and Relationships) were also of great importance to them as they came to realize the problems surrounding them and got solutions to them through the various discussions held amongst themselves.

How The World Starts With Me (WSWM) project has changed my life.

This project has changed my life in such a way that I’ve learnt how to relate with various people, my self esteem has grown to a larger extent that I can address the public without fear. I’ve been sensitized on some SRH problems and I can at least solve most of them and also help out fellow young people. I’ve also been sensitized on issues about HIV/AIDS which I can ably talk about with others and the sex issues in public.
I also attained leadership skills because I had never been a leader due to the low self esteem I had. I became the president of The World Starts With Me (WSWM) club at our school.
First I helped my fellow students develop their self esteem with my testimony I once gave that I couldn’t stand in public and talk not even in class but developed during the course of the WSWM program and so by trying to take my example they were able to raise views when called upon.
I also encouraged them to read out summaries of the previous lesson to the whole school on assembly where students were chosen randomly.
I also gave counseling services to a class of stubborn girls who were hated for their bad behavior in class and on compound and they turned into polite students thus saving them from later punishment.

In order to balance up my books with the club responsibility I held, we put up two days of meeting with other students i.e. Sunday and Thursday after 2:00 pm and 4:40 pm respectively, optimally utilized the prep time for my books and lived to the motto of time for everything.

The challenges I met as a president of WSWM club in my school.

As a president of The World Starts With Me (WSWM), I met challenges like;

•  Teachers have less time to support the program.
•  Competition from other clubs like Youth Alive that talk about some of the issues held in the program.
•  Some students don’t turn up claiming they know the Sexual Reproductive Health issues.

National WSWM activities I have been involved in.

I’ve been involved in WSWM national activities like:

• I am a member of the Zoom-In project.
• I am a member of the iEARN (International Educational and Resource Network).
• I attended the youth conference held at Trinity College Nabbingo in 2006.

I’ve also facilitated at various WSWM training workshops for Head teachers and peer educators.

My Advise to the new schools
 
I applaud the new schools for joining the WSWM program and I urge them to encourage their students to take the WSWM program seriously for their future lives. Students should be actively involved in the program and not leave it for the teachers for the program is for the young people and therefore teachers act only as guides. Head teachers and the teachers themselves should support if not enforce the program in their schools with great effort because students generally tend to be reluctant thinking they know SRH issues yet actually are less informed and sometimes ill informed.

My advice to the WSWM implementers.

I should thank the The World Starts With Me (WSWM) project implementers for introducing the program in our school because it has been of great importance to my life and of the students who were involved in it at my school.
I suggest training should be given to both students and teachers i.e. at least 1 teacher and 2 students because teachers tend to be busy marking exams, making reports yet the students could take on the responsibility and involve fellow students in various activities of the program.