By Faith Chagara | Program Advisor
Justice for the Vulnerable: Empowering Women in Uganda
Across Uganda, thousands of women, particularly those who are poor, rural, or survivors of violence continue to face overwhelming barriers to justice. Limited legal awareness, high legal costs, and long distances to formal justice institutions often leave women with nowhere to turn, while harmful social norms, stigma, and systemic weaknesses further silence survivors and prevent them from claiming their rights.
Between October and December 2025, FIDA-Uganda continued to stand at the forefront of defending women’s rights and expanding access to justice. During this period, 2,479 women across 21 districts received critical legal aid services through 10 legal aid clinics and 5 Family Justice Desks, providing life-changing support to those who might otherwise remain unheard and unprotected.
The cases handled reveal the harsh realities many women face. Domestic violence remained the most prevalent violation, with 690 cases reported, 83.5% involving women. This was followed by child maintenance disputes (612 cases), where 95.6% of complainants were women struggling to secure basic support for their children. These figures underscore the urgent need for sustained legal aid services and greater economic empowerment to reduce women’s vulnerability to violence and protect the wellbeing of their children.
Despite these challenges, our interventions delivered meaningful results:
Yet the demand for justice continues to grow. Structural inequalities, poverty, and persistent gender-based violence mean that many women still suffer in silence, unable to access the legal protection they deserve.
Your Support Can Change Lives
With your support, FIDA-Uganda can continue to:
Every contribution: large or small helps to bring justice within reach for women who need it most. Together, we can build a future where every woman can live free from violence, claim her rights, and thrive with dignity.
Success story: Maria’s economic rights are restored
Women migrant workers remain highly vulnerable to economic exploitation, particularly when earnings sent home are controlled or misused by intimate partners or relatives. In many cases, such exploitation is compounded by confiscation of personal documents, restricting women’s mobility and ability to return to work, thereby deepening economic dependency and insecurity.
This was the experience of a female client, a former domestic worker in Saudi Arabia, who had been sending money to her partner in Uganda throughout the period she was working abroad. Over time, the money she sent accumulated to UGX 7,000,000 (USD 1,880), which her partner was unable to account for. Upon her return to Uganda, the situation worsened when the partner confiscated her passport, effectively preventing her from travelling back to Saudi Arabia to resume work, despite her willingness and need to do so.
On 13th November 2025, the client sought assistance from FIDA-Uganda, which intervened by convening a mediation meeting at the FIDA-Uganda offices on the same date. During the mediation, the respondent acknowledged having received the money sent by the client while she was abroad. Through our legal guidance and mediation, the parties reached an agreement in which the respondent returned the client’s passport and refunded UGX 5,000,000 (USD 1350) out of the UGX 7,000,000 (USD 1,880) that had been misappropriated.
As a result of this intervention on 13th November 2025, the client regained access to her passport, restoring her freedom of movement and ability to seek employment abroad, while also recovering a substantial portion of her hard-earned income. This significantly improved her economic security and autonomy after a period of exploitation and restriction.
By Linette du Toit | Research and Fundraising Manager
By Martina Angella | Fundraising Officer
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