Teen Girls Health & Empowerment in Uganda

    The next young lady we would like to introduce you to from the Teen Girl Workshop is 18 year old Dorcus. In the nearby village of Bukuma, Dorcus lives at home with her mother and father along with 4 brothers and 6 sisters. The presence of households with many children is not uncommon in Uganda, but it is understandable that it often possess a financial strain on the parents. In the case of Dorcus, a lack of funds resulted in her falling a year behind her age mates in school. Despite this hurdle, Dorcus shared that she is determined not to let it affect her but rather tries to use it as motivation to work even harder to catch up with her friends. This motivation has driven Dorcus to excel in all her favourite subjects in school – History, English, Art and Math. When she grows up Dorcus strives to take her math skills and become an accountant so that she can help others in her community to manage their finances properly. Dorcus is passionate to ensure that what happened to her does not happen to any other children in her village.

    During Dorcus’ time at home, when she is not helping her parents with the other children or doing homework; she likes to hang out with her best friend Brenda. Together the 2 girls love reading books about Uganda and watching their favourite soap opera, Be Careful with My Heart. Dorcus says that, “the show is interesting because it is about a poor village girl who meets a boy working as a waiter. After a while the boy works to help the girl get a job and eventually proposes to her”. Dorcus and Brenda love the show because it takes about true love and gives them hope of meeting their true love one day.

    Unlike the other girls previously seen in the Teen Girl’s Workshop Series, Dorcus is unique in that it is not her first time coming to a Shanti workshop. According to Dorcus the workshop she attended 3 years ago was interesting and informative but the workshop this year taught her many knew things. For example, Dorcus liked that in this year’s workshop she learned more about the menstruation process.

    As the workshop came to an end Dorcus shared that she looked forward to going home and telling Brenda about all the new things that she learned. It would have been Dorcus’ wish for Brenda to join her at the workshop, but she was unable to due to family responsibilities. With the support of donors, like you, Shanti looks forward to being able to make their future workshops accessible to more girls, such as Brenda.