Gender Equality Uganda Project #34474

Girls Parliament to end child marriage in Uganda

by Share Child Opportunity Eastern and Northen Uganda (SCOEN)

Girls Parliament to end child marriage in Uganda

Project Report | Sep 15, 2026
Girls Speaking, Communities Listening

By Akol Lucas Haron | Project Leader

Dear Partners and Friends,

The Girl Parliaments project is on track. The most visible change is not only in the numbers but is in the sound of girls’ voices in rooms where decisions are made. Girls who once listened quietly are now standing before parents, elders, and local leaders to say, “A girl is not a price to be paid. She is a person with rights.”

What we set out to do

SCOEN’s Girl Parliaments is a leadership development initiative focused on ending child marriage by strengthening girls’ advocacy skills. Through peer education, girls share what they learn with classmates and other peers. Through community forums, they practice public speaking and leadership. And through trained facilitators, we open dialogues with parents, local leaders, and other key stakeholders to shift social norms around child marriage.

What has happened so far

1. Girl Parliament sessions are alive and growing

We have established 6 Girl Parliaments in 4 schools/communities, with 329 girls regularly participating. Sessions cover girls’ rights, the dangers of child marriage, consent, legal protections, public speaking, and peer mentoring. Attendance is strong, and girls are beginning to co-facilitate sessions themselves. One girl said, “Before, I thought marriage was my only future. Now I know I can speak for myself.”

2. Peer education is creating a ripple effect

Each Girl Parliament member has committed to sharing her learnings with classmates and peers. So far, girls have reached approximately 1816 peers through classroom talks, drama, poetry, and informal conversations. The message is simple and powerful: child marriage ends girls’ education, harms their health, and limits their future. Peers are now asking questions, reporting concerns, and supporting girls who are at risk.

3. Girls are stepping into community forums

We have supported 329 girls to participate in 6 community forums with parents, local leaders, religious leaders, and local officials. Girls have presented, facilitated small group discussions, and asked leaders to take a public stand against child marriage. In 6 communities, leaders signed pledges or made verbal commitments to protect girls’ rights. These are early signs, but they matter.

4. Facilitators are trained and reaching key stakeholders

We trained 32 more facilitators on safeguarding, gender norms, community dialogue, conflict sensitivity, and referral pathways. They have since held 9 community outreach sessions, reaching 574 parents, elders, and local leaders. The conversations are not always easy, but they are happening. As one facilitator put it, “We are not fighting culture. We are asking our community to protect its daughters.”

A story from the field

Acibo, 15, used to think child marriage was simply “our tradition.” After six Girl Parliament sessions, she spoke at a community forum. Her father was in the audience. He had come to defend custom. But as Acibo spoke about her dream of becoming a nurse, the room grew quiet. Later, her father said, “I came to defend our ways. I left understanding that protecting my daughter is also our way.” Since then, he has refused two marriage proposals for Acibo and enrolled her in a science club. Names changed for privacy.

Challenges we are facing

Resistance and tradition:l, some families and leaders see child marriage as cultural or economic survival. Changing this takes time and trust.
Girls’ time poverty, chores, school, and distance from meeting sites can limit participation.
Safeguarding and transport: Some girls need safe transport and accompaniment to attend forums.
Engaging men and boys, we are still reaching more mothers than fathers. We need to deepen work with fathers, brothers, and traditional leaders.
Measuring norm change, shifts in attitudes are slow and hard to capture in a single reporting period.

Lessons learned

Girls must lead, not just participate. When girls co-design sessions and forums, the message lands differently.
One-off dialogues are not enough. Community change requires repeated, respectful engagement.
Facilitators need ongoing mentorship, especially when conversations become tense.
Economic drivers matter. If families cannot afford school fees, child marriage can feel like the only option. We must link advocacy with practical support.

Next steps

Expand Girl Parliaments to 4 additional communities.
Train more girls in public speaking, advocacy, and digital storytelling.
Hold targeted dialogues with fathers, traditional leaders, and boys.
Strengthen referral pathways for girls at risk of child marriage.
Track community pledges and follow up on commitments.
Document stories of change and measure shifts in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior.
Advocate with local government for better enforcement of child marriage laws and girls’ access to education.

Conclusion

Progress is not only counted in workshops or attendance sheets. It is a father changing his mind. It is a girl standing up in a crowded hall. It is a community beginning to see child marriage not as destiny, but as a violation. We are not there yet. But the girls are leading the way and communities are starting to listen.

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May 26, 2026
Chronological Overview of Progress and Impact

By Lucas Haron Akol | Project Leader

the Girls' Parliament to End Child Marriage in Uganda has made significant strides in tackling child marriage in Uganda's Bukedea district. Since its inception, the project has moved from initial implementation to a broader regional expansion, achieving key milestones and directly contributing to changes in community norms and national policy dialogues.

The journey of the Girls' Parliament project is documented through periodic reports on GlobalGiving. Here is a timeline of its key developments.

The project has engaged 70 trained girl leaders and 285 girls and young women (aged 13-24) in advocacy with police, child protection units, and political leaders.

Peer Education: Training-of-trainers (TOT) programs were conducted, creating peer educators who reached 520 girls and 304 boys with life skills and comprehensive sexuality education.
Community Advocacy: Through public debates, poetry, and music, drama, and dance (MDD), 210 girls were reached with mentoring on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender-based violence (GBV).
Shifting Attitudes: Project leaders observed positive changes in communities, such as a 17-year-old survivor named Gloria who, after leaving a forced marriage, was inspired to "begin sensitising young people ... about their rights and responsibilities" to prevent others from suffering as she did

Strengthening Community Foundations

Building on initial successes, the project entered a phase focused on community-level dialogues. One participant, Ataro, shared how the dialogue sessions gave her a new vision for the future: "The dialogue changed the way I look at my future. Before I was very limited, I almost had no dreams... Since I started participating in the program, I put those thoughts aside and now I dream of being a teacher"

Direct Interventions: Recent activities include conducting 16 community dialogues where girls advocate with police and child protection units. The project also aims to train 70 new girl leaders and conduct SRHR/GBV mentoring sessions in 5 schools and 5 communities.

National Policy Advocacy: The project has contributed to raising awareness and building a national consensus for legal reform. As of April 2026, the Ugandan government, with support from stakeholders, is actively pushing for a marriage law amendment to ban child marriages below 18.

The project's future plans focus on scaling the Girls' Parliament model, deepening community outreach, and strengthening policy advocacy. By continuing to empower girl leaders, engage communities, and influence policy, SCOEN is creating a future where girls can choose their own paths.

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Jan 24, 2026
Journey in ending child marriage

By Lucas Haron Akol | Project Leader

"I have not committed any crime. It’s her parents who gave her to me to marry” Okodi*, 17, tying to defend himself for marrying Pamela*, 11 at a police station in Eastern Uganda.

Okodi married Janet last year and they were expecting a baby when a concerned nurse reported them to the police after Pamela had gone for antenatal care.

"Her parents said they cannot look after her so they told me to marry her so that I can provide her with what she needs and I accepted” Okodi further states.

In many developing countries like Uganda, and especially in rural areas, such stories are neither strange nor breaking news. Most times, poor families find themselves at a crossroads where they cannot feed themselves and their children. The immediate available option is to marry off their girls since they are a “potential” source of income as a “market” is always available.

Three driving factors come to light from the above; poverty, lack of education and awareness and cultural norms. Be it in Uganda, Bangladesh, Niger or Paraguay, all these factors are so intertwined that they make fighting child marriage a global combat not limited to a particular community

If we are to change the narrative, we need to first understand where we are coming from and where we are heading so as to find ways to challenge the status quo using a global approach but applying local methods.

To start, child marriage is deeply rooted in cultural norms but perpetuated by poverty. Girls from poor backgrounds are more likely to be married off before they reach the age of 18 than those from well off families. Many parents marry off girls simply because they cannot pay their school fees, cater for their basic needs, provide wise counsel to them or simply because they want to ‘make’ money out of them.

Consequently, effects of early marriage on girls are rarely looked at. With marriage, naturally comes pregnancy. A girl under the age of 18 is physically not yet ready to bear a child. This puts her at higher chances of getting fistula (resulting in permanent psychological torture) or even death during childbirth.

Furthermore, one thing that is widely ignored yet gruesome is sexual abuse and violence that comes with a girl’s first sexual experience. At such tender age, she is naturally afraid and not willing to have intercourse and thus she will be forced to have sex.

Therefore, child marriage limits a girl’s breakthrough in life. She loses everything when she is still young and ends up having low self-esteem. Is this what we wish for our young girls globally?

We all can do something to ensure that child marriage is reduced worldwide.

Families and communities must show value to the girl child. Communities need to be engaged to understand that child marriage robs the children of their innocence and ability to dream and create a better future for themselves

SCOEN now organizes community dialogues in the rural areas where girls are more prone to teenage pregnancies and child marriage, so as to create awareness about the evil

During such dialogues, district leaders, religious leaders, policy makers and peer educators educate the masses on why it is wrong based on the testimonies of the young people who have gone through that ordeal. It is surprising how many people are not aware of the consequences.

SCOEN with support from generous people like you, and support from corporate companies, foundations hopes to reduce child marriage by at least 10% in the next five years across the country. This is only possible if everyone gets involved.

As time slips by, another generation of girls like Pamela, are being lost to child marriage globally. We can do more to help — and we should.

*Not real names

SCOEN Team

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