Voices of SRHR in Restrictive Times
A poem by Kelly Mulungi Kavuma, a Ugandan alumna of Cohort 7 of the Advanced Short Course on Advocacy for Reproductive Justice.
“Aid should empower, not dictate. Decolonizing aid means shifting power to local communities and fostering the internal capacity of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to lead sustainable change rooted in their contexts, knowledge, and resilience.”
In lands where voices long were stilled,
By foreign hands, by dreams unfulfilled,
Rise now the seeds of strength and grace,
Born from the soil of their own place.
No longer chains of distant aid,
But paths by local wisdom laid.
Hands that build with stories old,
Hearts that shape the future bold.
Capacity grows like ancient trees,
Rooted deep in histories.
Power returned where it belongs,
In native hands, in native songs.
Decolonize the ways we give,
Let justice in the soil live.
For change is true when it is made,
By those whose dreams will never fade.