For women, puberty and adolescence are marked by the development of secondary sexual characteristics such as breasts, wider hips, and more. As they mature, they also experience reproductive changes such as their menstrual cycle and fertility. However, some women fail to develop these physical changes during puberty because of having short stature and are treated as abnormal. They are in good health but may develop physically rate.

BUNTUBWIMANA M. Appoline, RULP Legal Representative introduced the training and welcomed everyone, encouraging them to be attentive, telling them that the topic is seriously interesting and curious to many of us. “Be attentive and feel free to ask any question related to the topic. So, I encourage you to follow carefully that we may understand the subject and I remind you that the training is useful to any person with disability especially women with Short Stature as a vulnerable group in this time of Covid19”. She introduced

The training was facilitated by MUKAMPOGAZI Esther from OWDHD said that women and girls with Short Stature should know more about sexual reproductive health as a vulnerable who met sexual abuse many times.

“Women and girls with short stature should be aware of their sexual reproductive health because sometimes regardless the age, they are taken as children that their parents do not tell them about the topic and this cause various challenges like unexpected pregnancy due to, they are adult while they are not aware, etc”

She added that one of the most important parts of any person’s health and well-being is their sexual reproductive health, the aspect of human health that deals with birth control, pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. Women and girls with short stature can still experience the same problems as anyone else when it comes to sexual reproductive health matters. However, there are several unique challenges to contend with that men or women with average or tall height don’t have to worry about. There are also many measures you can take to combat these issues and maintain good sexual reproductive health.

BIHOYIKI Claudine, a woman with Short Stature from Nyamasheke who attended this training said that she gained too many things in this training that her parents and even relatives did not tell her.

“I am old enough but knowing nothing about sexual reproductive health. I am one of women with Short Stature who met sexual abuse and I got unexpected pregnancy due to the myths that sleeping with a woman with short stature brings chance. At that time, I felt ashamed of being disabled and pregnancy, I even had no formation on what happened and who can help me in that situation. So, today, I am aware of my body, time and anything related to sexual reproductive health.” She spoke

NIBYOBYIZA Floride, a woman with Short Stature and with blind said that it is not easy to women with Short Stature to know about sexual reproductive health and how to manage the situations that you are not aware.

“I am so grateful for this training about our sexual reproductive health to women with short stature especially in this period of Covid-19. Many women met sexual abuse during pandemic period but many of them did not know how to advocate for their sexual reproductive health rights especially these with disability including with Short Stature. Today, as women with Short Stature, we are going to raise our voices for advocacy purpose because if we do not, consequences are many for us”. She said.

TUYISHIMIRE Honorine, RULP Executive Director said that every person all over the world has responsibility to advocate for the right to a person with any disability but especially when it is about sexual reproductive Health. “We, women and girls with Short Stature are the first with the responsibility to advocate for our rights to sexual reproductive health. Let us raise our voice together to achieve”. She concluded

The training was organized by Rwanda Union of Little People (RULP) in partnership with Organization of Women with Disabilities for Health Promotion and Development in Rwanda (OWDHD), under the DRF/DRAF fund. The main objective was to building capacity of 30 women and girls with short stature, 15 from Kicukiro district and 15 from Nyamasheke district to advocate for their sexual and reproductive health rights.

Participants from Kicukiro district were trained on March 22, 2022 at Olympic Hotel, in Gasabo district and 15 from Nyamasheke District were trained on March 24 ,2022 at ISHARA Beach Motel in Nyamasheke District, from 09H00’ to 16H00’.