Give vocational training to a young mother

Objective

The project aims to empower young mothers with the necessary skills to effectively participate in society, enhance their employability, and improve their overall quality of life., especially through vocational training.

Activities / Achievements

• Tailoring students have learnt how to make pair of shorts, school uniforms and sportswear, shirts with collars, African shirts, round skirts, skirts with gathers, dresses that are round, dresses with gathers, and dresses that are u-shaped.
• The students of hairdressing have also been able to learn how to plait twist, threes, lines, treatment of hair, retouch of hair, crocheting of hair are now able to plait one another’s hair.

Challenges

• Almost 95% of the current learners under vocational training and education are experiencing domestic violence. Fifteen students reported that their male partners and / or families don’t support their continued uptake of vocational training. In one case, a young mother was physically abused by her partner and her tongue was nearly cut out and was admitted for a week. Although we planned to have reconciliation meetings to improve support towards young mothers’ vocational training, this was not possible as all mothers refused our efforts to intervene. They reasoned that if we intervened, we might heighten the risk of them experiencing more violence. This significantly affects their frequent attendance and partly explains why all learners requested CCUg to extend the training period to 7 months.
• The majority of young mothers are slow learners who need concerted efforts to learn simple tasks. Both communities where the trainings are conducted are multi-lingual, where about 95% of students know Kiswahili, Lugbara, and Japadhola. CCUg facilitators are knowledgeable in only 3 languages (Lusoga, Luganda, and English), which slows training, as some learners don’t understand any of these languages, necessitating frequent translations amongst students during lessons. In addition, most students have many competing responsibilities, including child care, work, and household chores among others. These coupled with the psychological effects of domestic violence negatively affect the speed of learning among young mothers.
• Some of them have children that they come with to class, so these children distract them.
• Some students are slow learners, requiring more time to teach them.
• Some partners are not supportive; others don’t want their women to be empowered.

Recommendations

• The entire timetable for the students should be discussed with them at the start so that when other aspects of the program start later, they are already aware.
• Conduct frequent meetings with the learners to give them psychosocial support, especially those who face domestic violence.

Lessons Learnt

• Get a facilitator who knows Kiswahili to promote learning among students that don’t know Lusoga or Luganda.
• Domestic violence among young mothers is a complex social problem to address, especially when interventions might increase the risk of continued violence.
• Frequent meetings with learners is vital in supporting them to address the issues they face. Planning and delivering conflict resolution lessons early is important for reducing violence and abuse among young mothers receiving training.