The trend for reported cases of Teenage Pregnancies and Child Marriage in Uganda has been on the rise since 2011. In a bid to prevent the massive spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, a total local down and closure of all education institutions took effect. As a result, social protection systems for adolescents, and especially girls, were highly affected, leading to an increase in cases of defilement, child marriages and teenage pregnancies. With the high levels of teenage pregnancies recorded, school dropout is on the rise and teenage mothers have increased.
A study commissioned by the Forum for African Women Educationalists Uganda (FAWE-U 2021) suggested that during Uganda’s first COVID-19 lockdown (between March and June 2020), pregnancies among girls between 15 and 19 increased by 25.5 per cent above their pre-COVID average, while pregnancies among girls between the ages of 10 and 14 increased by a staggering 366 per cent.
The majority of young mothers come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, with majority households living on a meal per day, which can make it harder to engage with further education. It is therefore evident that this group needs to be supported and economically empowered. If this need goes unmet, it is evident the children (daughters) of the teenage mothers will not only become teenage mothers in future but also destitute, drug addicts, prostitutes, extreme poverty, among other repercussions and consequences.
Equal Compassion Foundation was created with a mission to support vulnerable teenage mothers with marketable life skills in tailoring, fashion design, various crafts making, computer skills, and business as well as financial management, in order to reduce their level of vulnerability as they pursue their economic empowerment goal. Our assessment has found that these hands-on skills have an immediate impact.
We therefore appeal for global partnership in order to support these vulnerable young mothers, together with their children not to sink in to abject poverty and hopelessness. With your support, we can jointly put them on the path to economic empowerment! SHARE YOUR KINDNESS!