Girls Parliament to end child marriage in Uganda

In the past quarter numbe of progress have been, our dialogues have continued, SCOEN have called on communities to: Unite to end harmful social and cultural beliefs that give rise to violence against girls; end harmful practices; strengthen reporting & response mechanisms within communities & educational institutions

This was made possible by your generous gifting to support our work, out of thousands of inspiring projects  on GlobalGiving, so we’re grateful you chose to support our work. Thank you for being a part of our team of supporters that are making our project a reality. Thank you for your amazing response!

SCOEN has partnered with the GlobalGiving on a public appeal to raise awareness of the issue of child marriage in Uganda. Through the GlobalGiving Crowdfunding platform SCOEN has so far raised $1,867 of the required total goal of $82,350, including match funding from the GlobalGiving on donation. The money raised will support a project that will help facilitating girls' parliaments through which girls and young women can advocate with key stakeholders like police and child protection units to end child marriage at the community, sub-county, and district level

more funds are still needed to UnlockFutures for girls for good

Breaking the cycle Girls don’t need empowering; they just need a fair start and a level playing field. That’s why at Plan International we are aiming over the next 5 years to make sure 100 million girls learn, lead, decide, and thrive.

Esthers testmony

Esther is agent change girl in our program "Girls Parliament to end child marriage in Uganda"

Links:

• Esther is agent change girl in our program "Girls Parliament to

Girls’ Parliaments sessions through which girls engaged with key stakeholders like police and child protection unit, political as community advocacy to end child marriage in the communities at sub county and district level was conducted adolescent girls and young women equipped with knowledge to participate in the dialogues, the dialogues registered participation from the Child and Family Protection Unit office, Children advocate, child brides who have dropped out of school, schools girls, LC ones, women councilors, clan and religious leaders, parents who attended parent schools, many parents gave testimonies who some of their daughter were given second chances in life and are excelling; these activity reached 128 girls, 39 men, and 43 adult women. The school dropout who are the victims of child marriage were identified with the help of local councils, clan leader and religious leaders this was so helpful as the community is involved and owning the project. During this activity, the community outreach officers together with the community development officer of Arapai Sub County and district Probation and welfare Officer conducted the training of both in and out of schools’ girls in the school’s communities of Tukum, Angai, onyakai, Arapai and Odudui in Arapai Sub County and Kichinjanji, Soroti Islamic Primary Schools and Soroti Community Senior Secondary School in Northern Division. All these trainings were fruitful 60 school girls, 30 school drop outs, 7 senior women teachers and the area 14 local council ones equipped with the knowledge to be aware and confident to participate in open discussions on SRHR and child marriage issues in girls’ parliaments dialogues.

STORY BOX

Achom is a 16-year-old primary 7 pupil who is an active participant in Girls’ parliament. Her participation, she says, has fostered her ambition and capacity to be the first in her family to embrace. She wants to be a doctor.

Achom joined the Girls’ parliament June 2019. ‘That was the time I could not stand for my-self especially when menstruating,’ she explained, adding, ‘I felt shame as if it was my personal problem.’ The Girls’ parliament not only taught her about personal hygiene but also made her ‘feel free’ about being a girl.

In addition, she explained, the Girls’ parliament ‘helped me improve my speaking skills’. She is no longer afraid ‘to raise questions and give answers in the classroom lesson’. Having learned the importance of ‘choosing our friends with great care’, Achom is also a mentor for other girls, ‘encouraging them to be self-confident to speak out their view’.

Recognising boys are a key part of the solution, Achom has worked hard to foster a feeling between boys and girls that they are ‘as brothers and sisters’. Achom explained, ‘The male pupils who are members of the girls’ Girls’ parliament have been educated about the appropriate relationship between male and female pupils.’ Now, she added, there is ‘no problem based on differences in sex’.

The girls’ Girls’ parliament also works closely with parents, helping them recognise ‘females are equal with males in all aspects of life’. Because girls in Teso tend to be responsible for a far greater share of domestic labour, which impacts their ability to complete their schoolwork, the Girls’ parliament emphasises to parents the ‘equal distribution of household chores among girls and boys at home’.

Achom says that, because of SCOEN’s interventions, her community is a much better place to be a girl. ‘The practice of early marriage seems to be reducing’ she said, and ‘The community realised the value of girls’ education.’ Asked whether anything could be done to improve programming, Achom had two suggestions. First, noting that in rural areas people are often unwilling to attend training, ‘I recommend the use of house-to-house visits.’ Second, because ‘there is a shortage of trained teachers, I recommend the number of teachers be increased’. She ended enthusiastically, ‘Let female harassment be halted!’

Mentoring and role modelling for in and out of school girls through debates, poetry and MDD, that include peer education - guidance and counseling sessions conducted in Soroti Islamic primary school, and kichinjajai primary school by the Community Outreach Officers and peer educators/volunteers, mentoring and role modelling sessions availed AGYW with information regarding addressing gaps in SRHR/GBV service delivery, consequences and prevention of child marriage among themselves, general body hygiene and sanitation, roles and duties of children in schools and at home. During this activity girls stories/experience were captured.

Parents Schools session conducted in 10 school communities to identify key protection threats and identify community driven strategies to mitigate against protection threats, in these sessions, parents aired out many concerns and we realised most of them unaware of the case management and reporting, criticizing children rights these therefore strengthened the involvement of child protection and family unit from police and advocates to be part of these session. These sessions have reach 67 males and 80 females from the parishes of Amoru, Arapai and wards of Madera, Camp Swahili and Kichijanji. This seems to be a good platform for male involvement as key decision makers in homes and with key roles and responsibilities in women issues, it was imperative that men participate in RH awareness and girl child protection activities.

Links:

• Girls Parliament dialogue to End Child Marriage
• Girls Parliament dialogue session

Links:

• Preventing and Responding to Child Marriages
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Your genorous donations towards Girls Parliament to end child marriage in Uganda Project has so far enabled SCOEN to development project content like training manuals, IEC messages, social media messages etc. and yet translation of content to local language “Ateso.

The parliaments has create a platform that promotes critical reflection and allows for questioning of beliefs, myths, and practices in order to realize a change in social norms, accelerating the reduction of child marriage and gender based violence.

The fund facilitated create a dialogue about gender equality and child marriage at the community level through use of video and voice recording of interested community members that share helpful stories, testimonies, ideas, experiences, and knowledge about child marriage. This ahsl create opportunities for productive community level discussions on early marriage and how it can be overcome.

Links:

• Preventing and Responding to Child Marriages

Thank you our supporters!!!

Your genorous donations towards Girls Parliament to end child marriage in Uganda Project has so far enabled SCOEN to development project content like training manuals, IEC messages, social media messages etc. and yet translation of content to local language “Ateso.

We have also been able to train our volunteers and staff on Child Safegurding; while working with the children it’s the responsibility of SCOEN to make sure our staff, operations, and programmes do no harm the children, do not expose children to the risk of harm and abuse, and any concerns the organization has about children’s safety within the communities in which we work, are reported to the appropriate authorities.

We acknowledge risks and implement measures to address them is fundamental to organizations’ strategies and governance. The more this is recognized, the more risks can be prevented.

We are on set now  to take on the project!

The best way to change the society & the underlying issues is to channelize the power of woman in every walk of life.

We’re grateful you chose to support our work. Thank you for being a part of our team of supporters that are making our project a reality. We hope you enjoy learning about our work and continue to stay engaged with our team.

Please consider telling your friends and family about our work, you can also share on social media, or just bring us up in conversation. Sharing with your community why you chose to support our organization will help us increase the work we can do in our community itoInspire adolescent girls andyoung women to be strong, smart, and bold.
We understand how and when children’s rights are violated and girls are denied equality. We also understand the impact this has on their lives

Whats Girls' Parliament and how we intend to run it?

A Girl’s Parliament consists of a sequence of sessions, each leading to the intended outcome. Child Marriage may not be discussed in the initial sessions to avoid community backlash. Related motivational activities will be used to introduce the topic. The initial sessions will be informed by the local context of the community.

The main objective of Girls’ parliament is to create a platform that promotes critical reflection that allows for questioning of beliefs, myths and practices in order to realize a change in social norms to accelerate the abandonment of Child Marriage.

This will: -

• create a deeper understanding of communities, their situation, current practices, interests, existing opportunities and challenges and helps devise mitigating strategies for sustainable behavior change
• enhance accountability and stimulates action and a sense of ownership of agreed interventions by the community
• enable identification of key persons in the community in order to build networks and partnerships to ensure sustainability
• enhance the capacity of the facilitators to develop effective and adaptable skills in inclusive decision-making for attitude and behavior change

The following steps are essential in organizing and conducting the girl’s parliament:

Training of community facilitators; stakeholders’ mapping and engagement; participant identification; develop leading questions; venue selection; and timing of the dialogue; Participant mobilization - a maximum of 45 participants is advisable for one facilitator.

It’s also important to understand how to conduct such effective sessions to bring about the desired change. Like to: - introduce the purpose of the dialogue; language of the dialogue, rules of engagement; community resolve and action plan; evaluating the dialogue and concluding the dialogue

FACILITATION:

Facilitation plays a significant role as it ensures that the objectives are met. It is thus imperative to have a qualified individual who will understand the qualities, roles and responsibilities of facilitation to effectively moderate theconversation. This person will be sourced to facilitate, conversant with Child Marriage issues and may be able to handle different scenarios. she may be confronted with different scenarios during the dialogue process that may hinder successful engagement and conclusion of the process

Links:

• Girls Parliament to End Child Marriage
• SCOEN Uganda Website