End teenage pregnancy in Northern Uganda

SUCCESS STORY.

Acamfua* Success Story from Acamfua,15year old girl turned mother of 3.

"Life took an unexpected turn when I lost my grandmother, and at just 14, I had to step up as a parent to my two younger siblings. To support our family, we worked on farms and sometimes missed school to meet our needs. In the evenings, I sold pancakes to ensure we could get by.

At 15, while returning home from selling, I fell victim to a violent crime that left me devastated. Two men attacked me, stole my hard-earned money, and assaulted me. This traumatic experience felt like adding red pepper to an already fresh wound, leaving me broken and alone, unable to share my pain.

A couple of weeks later, I began feeling unwell and learned I was pregnant. The weight of this news crushed my hopes for a brighter future through education, and I ultimately dropped out of school. The stress took a toll on my health, leading to a miscarriage due to severe urinary tract infections.

In a conversation with a friend, I learned about Hope Vineyard Foundation Uganda, which had previously engaged with young people on issues like teenage pregnancy and early marriage. I reached out to them, hoping for support in continuing my education. They welcomed me with open arms, providing love and non-judgmental support. They connected me with a youth counselor for confidential sessions, which helped me immensely.

After several counseling sessions, I received the support I needed to return to school. Today, I am studying and feel as though a veil has been lifted from my eyes. I can now see the path ahead, filled with hope and possibility for both myself and my siblings".

• Hope Vineyard Foundation Uganda 
• Quarterly Report
• Presented To:GlobalGiving and Donors
• Dated:23rd/Sep/2025.
• Executive Summary:Teenage pregnancy crisis remains a critical issue, with high rates in Zombo district and other parts of Uganda creating global implications, exacerbated by poverty,limited access to contraceptives,education, bad cultural community  practices and parental negligence ,which leads to increased school dropout rate,sexual exploitation,child marriage,socioeconomic exclusions. This crisis disproportionately affects girls, limiting their educational and life opportunities undermining efforts to gender equality, increasing health risks such as maternal mortality and other complications like obstetric fistula, infections, and raising the prevalence of child marriage and gender-based violence. Addressing this requires comprehensive community-led interventions, social and economic empowerment for girls, improved child protection systems, and sustained monitoring and evaluation to protect the long-term well-being of adolescent girls and achieve sustainable development goals.

 Introduction:Uganda alongside partners and Civil society organizations jointly implemented national strategies, but more comprehensive efforts involving access to sexual and reproductive health services, addressing harmful cultural norms, and combating sexual abuse,gender inequality are significantly needed to reduce the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Zombo district and Uganda atlarge, which is the key aim and objective that this project addressed  and still shall address.

 Activities and Progress:Through GlobalGiving funds,individual donors and the local communities support funds;

• We carried out 4 sessions on social entrepreneurship programs and also encouraging school dropout teenage mothers to establish and join saving groups to ensure financial inclusion and financial reliance,here a total of 30 teenage mothers were reached and empowered with knowledge and tool on financial inclusion for improved livelihood.
• In this quarter we completed 4 distint community visits/dialogues,where in we intentionally challenged and encouraged the clan leaders,rural communities to challenge negative cultural norms,infidelity,gender inequality and fragmentation of social values that leaves young women and girls with little choice and power over their bodies and future.A call to rebuild cultural norms championing equitable gender dynamics and shared parental responsibilities,in this a total of 50 women and 30 men were enganged
• We also conducted 4 Menstrual health Hygiene sessions in 3 selected primary and 1 secondary schools,reaching out to over 120 adolescent girls in the past 3 months,including teenage girls who resumed schhools after giving birth,training them to make reusable pads,this limits them from transactional sex inorder to have menstrual health products.
• Under this project,we provided scholastic materials to 5 teenage mothers from poor family backgrounds to resume studies
• We created safe spaces and provided extensive psycho-social supports to seven (07) teenage mothers to continue there education, small scale bussiness and regain dignity,this opposes community stigma and discrimination.

• Financial:Summary of Financial expenditure and how funds were used.
• Transport of 12 trainers to and fro 12 Sessions venues =$68.57(240,000Ugx)
• 12 Trainers allowance for the 12sessions=$102.89(360,000Ugx)
• Scholastic materials to 05 Vulnerable Rural girls=$71.43(250,000)
• Material for training on reusable sanitary pads and its transportation=$71.43(250,000Ugx)
• Providing sessions of psycho-social support to 07 Teenage mothers=$114.29(40,0000Ugx)
• Total=$428.57(1,500,000Ugx) 
• Challenges:
• Cultural variances from some illiterate traditional leaders considering us as imposters who only seeks to ruin their traditions with foreign rules and way of life,this creates stigma resulting to ineffeciency.
• Negative community myths on access to Contraceptives by unmarried adolescent girls is culturally immoral and ashaming to parents,this limits our efforts in ending teenage pregnancies.
• Fragmentation of social values increases the gap in gender equity,rendering girls with little power over their bodies and future.
• Community based approach exposes our workers to harm and abuse from the harsh communities,since no much protection is provided.
• Limited access to the most vulnerable homesteads due to no road access
• Limited funding strains our work and reach to the most vulnerable rural girls.
• The community based approach,the system we use exposes us to places hard to reach by any modern means except navigating it on foot.this may expose the staff more to snakebites

• Outcomes and Impact:
• Creating financial resilience by providing financial empowerment training to 30 school dropout teenage mothers to aid economic inclusion and  improved livelihood
• Training 120 adolescent school girls from 4 rural Primary school on making reusable pads inorder to keep them in school.
• A total of 80 rural men,women including their clad leaders were meaningfully  engaged in dialogues meant to provide local solutions to the crisis of teenage pregnancy in communities.
• Created safe spaces and provided psychosocial support ,restored dignity to 07 teenage mothers who are school dropout.
• Supported 05 teenage mothers with school requirements and they resumed school.

• Stories and Photos:
• Kellen's Story:
• "When I got pregnant after Primary Five(P.5),the entire community looked at me as a girl with deffered hope and messed up future,truly I lost hope and selfworth and the world was upside down for me,full of self condemnation because every one including my mates and parents dissociated themselves from me, earmarked me  as a bad example and could recite this to other children who are at faults,this was a hard time for me.Fortunately, Amidst confusion and rejection,I dellivered my baby normally despite the state of depression I found myself in.before my heart and mind could recover from the past trauma,another heartbreaking news was when one of my siblings whispered to me that my parents had secretly initiated a discussion with the parents of the boy,negotiating to marry me off in a traditional mariage,something against my will,this really broke me into pieces where I could not gather my broken piece anymore.Thankfully,a friend shared my story with Hope Vineyard Foundation Uganda ,which sent a member upto my parents home and sat us down for an insightfull discussion and my voice was amplified,the marriage plan was call off,I was given serious counselling and other support to help me recover from all the trauma  went through,and now Iam in school again,Thank you to HVF-UG staff and donors who support the life transforming work of this organization,my story was changed just in the blink of an eye"
• "Choose compassion over Condemnation"

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