Gender Equality Uganda Project #8965

Support 225 adolescent mothers to thrive in Uganda

by Act4Africa

Project Report | Apr 7, 2021
New mental well-being initiative for child mothers

By Sarah Istephan | Marketing Manager

Over the nine years that we have crowdfunded through GlobalGiving for our Ugandan Girls Thrive project, the needs of one particularly vulnerable group of out-of-school girls have been regularly highlighted. Child mothers.

Child Marriage (marriage below the age of 18 years) remains a widespread practice across many cultures in Uganda. In 2012, 49% of girls were married by the age of 18 (UBOS and ICF International Inc.). These problems of high rates of early pregnancy are significantly amplified in rural districts such as Mayuge, Eastern Uganda, especially since the COVID-19 lockdown. In Mayuge, child mothers as young as 12 are particularly marginalised. They suffer from significant stigmatisation, social isolation & poor mental wellbeing, often resulting in suicidal tendencies.

Child mothers in Mayuge often have little to no education & no access to basic services or support mechanisms. Social isolation, economic vulnerability, and lack of access to healthcare prevent healthy transitions from girlhood to womanhood in this low-resource community. In Mayuge, vulnerable adolescent mothers are hard hit by all aspects of poverty & are at high risk of gender-based violence, further unintended pregnancies & HIV. They are forced to drop out of school, are unable to find employment, they lack the ability to make independent decisions, & are not being reached by existing programs.

Therefore, we are pleased to announce that Act4Africa have been awarded a Small Charities Challenge Fund grant from UK Aid Direct to work with this community. The aim of the two-year project is to improve the well-being & health of 225 adolescent mothers in Mayuge District, Eastern Uganda. Working with them, local health workers and the wider community, we aim to facilitate an improvement in the girls’ mental well-being and provide them with increased control over their sexual and reproductive health. They will be formed into small self-help groups to promote peer support, emotional wellbeing, access to local government health and social services & develop a collective voice to advocate for their needs.

Our initial consultations with this community of young mothers have led to an identification of a further need, beyond their mental and physical well-being. As we discuss and design the programme with the girls, the type of economic and enterprise training we have delivered to many out-of-school girls through your donations to our GlobalGiving project, has been identified as a valuable addition.

When our field officers spoke to Cissy (18), she had given birth 5 days before.

’We are a very young couple that was only driven by the pressures of teenage hood and little did we ever know that we would find ourselves in the circumstances that we find ourselves in today: two children now, no money to take care of ourselves, no place to stay or call home other than here where we are being looked after and taken care of by the mother to my husband. There are a lot more of other challenges, but on the other hand we are hoping that Act4Africa’s new program will help girls like me to acquire vocational skills like which help me find employment and be able to take care of my family’’.

We are very grateful for your ongoing support and hope that over the next two years your donations will help us co-produce a vocational programme with these adolescent mothers, to run alongside our exciting new mental well-being initiative.

We look forward to bringing your more news on this soon.

Cissy (18) a young mother with 2 children

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Dec 9, 2020
Emergency aid for flood victims in Kasese

By Moris Kabunzugwire | Project Leader

Elderly & pregnant women were the priority for aid

Kasese district, Western Uganda has been repeatedly ravaged by floods over the last 7 months, including as recently as last month. Over 100,000 people have been left homeless. Heavy rains have caused most of the major rivers in the district to burst their banks. Notably, we had river Nyamwamba, Mubuku, and river Nyamugasani which flooded, destroying lives and many properties, including a government hospital, several schools, and people’s homes. The floods unfortunately swept away gardens of crops that left many people with no shelter, food or clean water.

As a result of the gross effects of these catastrophes from May to November, the government aid was not sufficient for all of the victims and many found themselves living in camps where they had to depend entirely on relief food and other basic necessities which were mainly provided by charity organizations and well-wishers.

The camp which we visited is in the Nyamwamba division of Kasese municipality. It is divided into 3 sections. Approximately 50 families are living in each section of the camp with a total population of around 250 people living in makeshift houses made of tarpaulin, sharing 3 toilets with only 1 tap that also provides water to the surrounding community.

Prior to the relief distribution, the local council chairperson told us about his frustrations and shared great concern for the pregnant mothers giving birth in the camp without good care. Most rely on traditional birth attendants and those who do manage to reach the health facilities have no money to get proper postnatal care. He said that since the existence of the camp, 18 mothers have given birth with many more being pregnant and expecting any time soon. The issue of increased cases of teenage pregnancy in the camp results from idleness by the youth, mostly since no economic or social activity in the camp engages them and they lack knowledge about sexual reproductive health. He said that these increased cases of pregnancies by young girls will mean most of them miss out on studying even after schools fully reopen next year.

The chairperson also talked about the challenges of attending to people suffering with mental illness in the camp who need special consideration from the government or any other organization to help them get the correct treatment. He also highlighted the need to sensitize and counsel families of those suffering from poor mental health, so that they can live without being isolated by others.

It is against this background that Act4Africa received an emergency grant from GlobalGiving to come to the rescue of people living in camps. We were able to give food and sanitation items to help the people of Kasese, especially those living in camps to minimize the possible outbreak of diseases in these crowded camps. While giving out aid, Act4Africa mostly identified families with many children, pregnant mothers, people with disabilities, and the elderly as the most vulnerable people that required urgent assistance.

We gave out a range of foods like, maize and cassava flour, cooking oil and rice to help people improve their diet. Relief items such as washing bar soap and liquid soap, hand washing tap and dustbins will help fight diseases like cholera and coronavirus by washing hands at the entry point of the camp and having a good garbage collection point.

This aid by Act4Africa was greatly appreciated by the camp residents who said that it will improve the diet of their families and improve the general sanitation of the camp.

“Thank you Act4Africa for this food relief that has been timely because we were having no food” said one of the mothers in the camp.

Looking at the effects of lockdown in the country resulting from Covid19, economically people are unable to work and earn money that will enable them decent lifestyles like before or construct houses that were washed by floods. They called on Act4Africa and all its partners and well-wishers to consider them and supply more food to them because government aid is always slow.

The food aid provided by Act4Africa was a great relief to the people of Kanyageya living in camps and they greatly appreciated the works of the charity and support of GlobalGiving.

Water stations to keep people safe from infection

Food, soap, jerrycans and bins all received

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Sep 25, 2020
Helping girls manage through COVID-19 lockdown

By Moris Kabunzugwire | Project Leader

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