Nourishing Skills, Nurturing Futures, GEDA’s Support for Teenage Mothers.

In the bid to empower teenage mothers with skills for self-reliance, GEDA Uganda, today, 17th April 2025, distributed tailoring and salon equipment as part of the “Better Nutrition for Children Under 5 Years” project. This initiative seeks to equip young mothers with practical skills to better support their children.

This effort is one of several engagements GEDA has undertaken with teenage mothers. These include cooking demonstrations on preparing nutritious meals for children under five, training sessions on nutrition assessment methods such as Mother-led or Family-led MUAC (Mid-Upper Arm Circumference), and training on Maternal, Infant, Young Child, and Adolescent Nutrition (MIYCAN), among others.


The trainings start next week in both tailoring and hair dressing in the two Parishes of Nyangorongo and Isule.

Speaking at the handover of the euipment to the teenage mothers, the Community Development Officer Maliba Sub-county Ruth Labongo cautioned the teenage mothers not to be reckless as some boys may want to lour them when they start earning after their skills acquisition, she further assured them that they were blessed being selected from the over 40 sub counties in Kasese District and thus need to work hard and fight poverty. She encouraged them to welcome their fellow colleagues that may want to learn the skills even when they’re not part of the group.

she appreciated GEDA Uganda for the progress so far made in the project implementation and that as a sub county they were impressed.

CDO Maliba, Ruth Labong addressing the teenage mothers representatives that had turned up to pick the equipment.

GEDA’s Deputy Managing Director thanked the teenage mothers for owning the project although there some few elements that needed mindset change. He encouraged them to use the little resources that were offered to them to build big. He also promised maximum support and monitoring for the activities but also support Isule that had started a VSLA.


Additionally, GEDA Uganda recently supplied iron-rich beans and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes for planting, supplementing the vegetables that are already thriving.

The beneficiaries received the equipment with joy and thanked GEDA and her donors for considering them in such an initiative of empowering them.

FCDE representative (right) graced the handover ceremony.

GEDA Uganda also extends here gratitude to the Maliba Sub-County Local Government for its full support of this project, as well as to our partners, Foundation for Community Development and Empowerment-FCDE, Pate Roose Fonds, and Luena Foundation that have financially supported these initiatives. Currently, the project supports 120 teenage mothers and 120 children under the age of five. “Healthier Children, Healthier Future”

 

GEDA Joins other partners to support Gilbert the severely malnourished Child

Kasese is one of the Districts in Uganda with the highest burden of stunting amongst children under five years and is ranked 3rd in Uganda and first in the Rwenzori sub Region with the highest prevalence of child marriages and teenage pregnancies (GoU, 2022) (UNFPA, 2021) a situation that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic presenting a double burden.

To confirm this, during the past weeks social media was awash with photos of Gilbert a 5 year old boy that was suffering severe malnutrition as a result of being neglected by the parents. He was left at the mercy of his grand parents who also lived in severe poverty and so Gilbert seemed to have been left at the mercy of his creator. During a field work by one of the community volunteers, she came across the home where Gilbert was lying naked on the ground and immediately alerted different concerned leaders. Gilbert was rescued and transferred to hospital for further management.

Having learnt about this situation, GEDA Uganda’s management reached out to the Community Development Officer of Maliba sub county and the volunteer that discovered the child to ascertain the situation but also finding out how the institution would help. The CDO explained that the child needed a lot of support given the family background and asked different partners to consider supporting this child.

GEDA Team with the Medical Director at the hospital ward where Gilbert is admitted.

GEDA staff then went to St. Paul’s Hospital to check out the condition of the child. We met Dr. Karabyo Samson, the Medical Director of St. Paul’s Hospital, to further understand how Gilbert can be meaningfully assisted to recover. According to Dr. Karabyo, he said that due to severe malnutrition, Gilbert could be suffering from other underlying medical conditions. He said his treatment was going to take some time, with hope to stabilize the boy’s condition. He further said that foremost support that is needed would be social support that included, nutritious foods, drinks, soap and other sanitary items among others.

Gilbert at the nutrition ward

During this same visit GEDA Uganda discovered a number of other malnourished Children that were on the ward that needed social support as well which GEDA provided as well.

 

GEDA trains teenage mothers on demo setup for the nutrient dense foods

In the bid to improve the nutrition status of the Children born to teenage mothers under the “better nutrition for children under five” project, GEDA Uganda has continuously empowered the project beneficiaries with several skills, demonstration set for nutrient dense foods being the latest.

A total number of 31 Care givers (Teenage mothers) participated in the training. The training aimed to demonstrate the relevance of having gardens for growing nutrient-dense crops, improving nutrition, and enhancing the health and well-being of young mothers and their children.

The training based on;

  • Demonstrating the importance of nutrition gardens for growing nutrient-dense crops.
  • Equipping teenage mothers with skills and knowledge on establishing and managing nutrition gardens.
  • And promoting the consumption of nutrient-dense crops for improved nutrition and health.

A number of topics were covered during this training including but not limited to;

  1. Importance of Nutrition Gardens: Participants learned about the benefits of having nutrition gardens, including improved nutrition, increased food security, and enhanced health and well-being.
  2. Selecting Nutrient-Dense Crops: Participants were taught how to select crops that are rich in essential nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, and proteins.
  • Establishing and Managing Nutrition Gardens: Participants learned how to establish and manage nutrition gardens, including preparing the soil, planting, and maintaining the crops.
  • Nursery bed; the following were discussed; -soil preparation, soil sterilization, manuring, sawing, mulching, watering, shade provision, weeding, pest control, hardening off, and transplanting.

The GEDA trainer also went ahead and explained the different common gardens to be used in the demonstration site and these included the African Key hole garden for one stop different vegetable harvesting, U-garden for soil and water conservation and flat beds.

He further requested the teenage mothers to go and identify the right fields so that they can sample these gardens at the time of transplanting.

GEDA Extension worker demonstrating with the teenage mothers during the training.

At the end of the training the teenage mothers had gained;

1. Enhanced knowledge and skills  when they had elaborated theoretical session and demonstrated practically on the nutrient dense foods’ demonstration gardens.

2. Enhanced knowledge and Skills on selecting the appropriate planting materials and the information attached to ensure seed viability, germinability, manufacturing & expiry dates were key.

3. Enhanced Motivation: Participants expressed increased motivation to establish and maintain nutrition gardens, promoting improved nutrition and health for themselves and their children.

GEDA Uganda is committed to impart the skills and change the status of the Children born to teenage mothers.