Skilling teenage mothers for Adaptation to COVID-19 effects in Kasese

In Uganda like elsewhere around the world, Covid-19 has led to an increase in teenage pregnancy. In order to gain basic necessities like sanitary towels, girls have engaged in negative coping mechanisms like transactional sex with men who took advantage of their need for money. Teenage pregnancies, among other factors is increasing the number of girls not in school. 98 million adolescent girls worldwide  were not in school before COVID yet an additional 20 million is projected to be added due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Kasese District in western Uganda ranks highly in the magnitude of early marriages and teenage pregnancies rooted within the cultural norms with research evidence revealing that 52% of women aged 18-67 had prior teenage pregnancy. The situation was worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic lock down that led to the closure of schools.

Data from the District health, education and probation offices show that in July 2020, 2,372 school going girls conceived and 128 married off during the lock down in only 10 Districts, Kasese inclusive. This was partly attributed to the lockdown that created more redundant time for the learners, who ideally were supposed to be engrossed in the government’s e-learning program.

It is against this background that Gender-Environment and Development Action started the skilling programme for teenage mothers to equip them with life skills to help them function independently as adults and parents. The programme is targeting 10 groups of teenage mothers with a total membership of 300 in Kasese District Western Uganda.

The programme kicked off with training of 21 teenage mothers in menstrual hygiene management that focused on making of reusable sanitary pads. The 21 trainees are form from Kasese Municipal teenage mothers group that has a membership of 35 aged 14 – 20, all having babies aged 0-1 year.  This is an indication that all these conceived during the lockdown. The training in making of reusable sanitary pads was conducted by Ms.Kidima Margret of GEDA Uganda in Kidodo cell, Central Division, Kasese Municipality where the group members reside. The training was practical and by the end of the training session each participant was able to make 2 reusable sanitary pads.

During the training the young mothers in the their words appreciated Gender-Environment and Development Action for the work done and one of trainees aged  16 years had this to say “this skill is going to help me make my own pads for use and some for sale that will me help me buy soap and other small basic needs for my baby”, she however appealed to GEDA and other development partners to support them with more skills like tailoring, shoe making, knitting among others that will help  them generate income to take care of themselves and their babies. She further added that that given an opportunity, she would go back to school.

In attendance was the Community Development officer from Kasese Municipality who thanked GEDA-Uganda for the support and requested for more skilling trainings for the adolescent mothers. The training also integrated a module on the basic of GBV and VAC prevention and response. GEDA- Uganda Shared their tool free line number 0800100029 with the teenage mothers to report any cases of GBV and VAC and as well report any challenges that they service for timely response and referral.

There an urgent call for Government and other development partners to support life skilling for teenage mothers to help them function independently as adults and as parents to take good care of their children and as well be economically empowered to resist any further negative coping mechanism that lead to viscous cycle of teenage pregnancies, poverty and malnutrition.

GEDA has a comprehensive training manual for teenage mothers with modules on  self-realization, skilling,  psychosocial support, parenting, reproductive health,  nutrition for lactating and children below 5years , financial inclusion and protection for delivery of a comprehensive training package.

 

 

 

MenEngage in Menstrual hygiene management

Internally displaced men in Kasese District Western Uganda actively participated in making reusable sanitary pads for their wives and children following the adoption of the Men Engage approach by Gender Environment and Development Action Uganda(GEDA-Uganda).

Practical session in progress for the re-usable sanitary pads.

Whereas menstrual hygiene management is always viewed as a women and Girls’ issue, the internally displaced men and boys in Kanyangeya IDP camp in Kasese challenged this narrative by making reusable pads for their women and children during a training organized by GEDA-Uganda.

“My name is Muhindo Rabson commonly known as Kapiriri, I would like to thank GEDA-Uganda for training us in making reusable pads for our women that will improve on menstrual hygiene management and will reduce on our monthly expenditures on sanitary pads. The money saved will be used for other household basic needs……. Our shirts will also be spared since some of our wives have been improvising with pieces of cloth from our shirts due to lack of alternative sanitary pads. With this we will live healthy and peaceful with our wives in the camps”.  

10 Men and boys participated alongside 50 Women and girls that were able to make one complete reusable sanitary pad each by the end of the training bringing the total trained in making of reusable pads to 115 in internally displaced camps in Kasese District. The trained men and boys will be mentored by GEDA-Uganda as role model men and boys in menstrual hygiene management, reproductive health, GBV and VAC mitigation and Response in the IDP camps.

Men engaged in making re-usable sanitary pads during the training.

There is still a huge need for sanitary pads for women and girls of reproductive age in internally Displaced Person’s camps in Kasese District that calls for attention from Government, CSOs, Development partners and well-wishers.    The unmet needs for sanitary pads if not given attention may lead to bad coping mechanisms for women and girls like using any available materials as sanitary pads that may pose a health threat.

During the training, GEDA Uganda also created awareness on menstrual hygiene management and sexual and reproductive health for teenage girls and boys.

In addition, GEDA Uganda is also creating awareness on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Violence Against Children (VAC) prevention and response using awareness sessions in camps, radio talk shows, radio drama series on Guide radio-Kasese and is using it,s toll free line (0800100029) for response and referral for GBV, VAC, Sex and reproductive health.

Participants posing for a photo with GEDA staff at the end of the training.

Child marriages still remains a challenge in Kasese District

Child marriage is a global problem affecting millions of girls across the world. It is considered a human rights violation because it deprives those involved of education and health services, the chance to learn skills and develop their personalities and leaves them vulnerable. It is an appalling violation of human rights and robs girls of their education, health and long-term prospects.

Uganda is one of the countries with the highest early and forced marriage. 10% of girls are married off before the age of 15 and 40% of girls re married off before their 18th birth day (UNICEF 2011).

Even when Marriage remains one of the celebrated moments and a key millstone among families across Rwenzori region. Sadly, there is no more cause of celebration today because of the high cases of child marriages in the region.

In 2014, Kasese District hit the headlines when a 12-year-old girl was “officially” married off.  Currently, several villages in Kasese are dotted with child mothers.

Sowed, Kitanywa, the Kasese District Senior Probation and Social Welfare Officer, then said the district was grappling with high school dropout rates. He said most girls are persuaded to drop out of school by men into marriage according to Uganda radio network (URN Jan 2020).

Recent statistics in Kasese indicate that for every 94% girl children who attend primary one, only 32% manage to reach primary seven. Three-quarters of the children who start primary education never make it to secondary level.

Kitanywa blames this trend on violence against children in school, parental neglect and lack of cooperation among the community to have guided this trend.

The narrative seems not to have changed either. This was revealed during a radio talk show conducted by GEDA Uganda this week about the causes, dangers and effects of early marriages. It was highlighted by the Officer in Charge (OC) child and family protection unit Kasese that poverty, domestic violence, wars or displacement, peer pressure, negative cultural beliefs, lack of essential needs like sanitary pads are the most causes of early marriages. Adverse effects of this problem has led to child mothers, poverty to their young families, stunted brain development and growth of children produced since they do not have enough and the rightful nutritious foods to feed their children on, family breakages, high infant mortality rate and other health challenges like fistula since these girls bones are not strong enough to push babies. According to statistics from Kasese Police since March 2020, 30 children have since been reported married, 24 defiled and for Isule health center in Maliba sub county, from December 2019 to March 2020 50 girls were attending antenatal care. The new vision of 13th March 2020, Government is worried that about 10 millon children may not go back to school after lockdown both boys and girls. Currently kasese has Maliba, Munkunyu, Mpondwe-Lhubiriha town council, Karambi, Hima, Karusandara, Nyakatonzi and Kilembe sub-counties leading in early child marriages.

The magnitude of the problem is big and needs efforts of every duty bearer, parents, civil society organizations, Government to curb this. GEDA Uganda is adding her small contribution to end this vice by mass awareness through radio talk shows, drama series, engaging girls and women in the make of reusable sanitary pads for sustainability purposes and avoiding temptations from the girls and women with bad coping up mechanisms.

It is our responsibility to end child marriages now. It’s time up. Together we can defeat this vice.

GEDA Uganda toll free line 0800100029 is still available to report such cases just in case you have no access to police and other responsible leaders.

Child labor is real in Kasese District

In 2018, Uganda made a moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The Ministry of Gender, Labor, and Social Development, in partnership with the Kampala Capital City Authority, removed 283 children from the streets of Kampala and provided them with social services. The government initiated proceedings to harmonize legal provisions on minimum age to align with international standards. It also drafted a National Action Plan on Child Labor, which was approved in February 2019. However, children in Uganda engage in the worst forms of child labor in commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking. Children also perform dangerous tasks in gold mining, carrying heavy luggage among others.

Probation officer, Child and family officer and GEDA Uganda staff in the the studios discussing child labor.

Child Labour denies fundamental human rights such as the right to education, right to rest and leisure and free from the country’s unfair working conditions.

Kasese District either has not been spared in as far as child labor is concerned. This was revealed during the radio talk show by GEDA Uganda on Kasese guide radio. The radio program unpacked child labor with different forms such as child trafficking, slavery, forced labour, sexual exploitation, pornographic performance and many more others.

It was also revealed that some of these acts are brought about by poverty, big family sizes, corruption, civil wars, rural urban migration and primitive traditional cultural practices.

Speaking during the same radio talk show, the police officer in charge of child and family kasese District revealed that atleast one child labor case is reported on a daily basis in Kasese and that Kasese municipality is leading in such cases followed by Hima Town council, Katwe-Kabatooro and Mpondwe-Lhubiriha TC in that order.

The District probation officer Kasese confirmed these reports during the same radio talk show saying that every year Kasese District records about 2500 cases saying they could be more than that adding the unreported cases. Several callers appreciated GEDA Uganda for the timely talk show and confirmed most of these child labor cases.

Previous talk show on the legal aspect of child labor and GBV

This program follows a previous one GEDA Uganda had conducted on the legal aspect of Violence Against Children (VAC) and Gender Based Violence (GBV) that was attended by Mr.Bwalhuma Isaac from the Uganda Christian lawyers Fraternity and the Officer in charge of child and family Kasese.

It is our responsibility to end violence against children, GEDA Uganda still calls upon all development actors in the fight against these vices. Together we can make it. Our toll free line is still open 0800100029 for any child and GBV related cases in your community.

The plight of a woman in the Rwenzori region amidst covid-19 and floods

The roles of Ugandan women have been taken to be subordinate to those of men, despite the substantial economic and social responsibilities of women in Uganda’s many traditional societies. Women are taught to accede to the wishes of their fathers, brothers, husbands, and sometimes other men as well, and to demonstrate their subordination to men in most areas of public life.

Even in the 1980s, women in rural areas of Buganda were expected to kneel when speaking to a man. At the same time, however, women shouldered the primary responsibilities for childcare and subsistence cultivation, and in the twenty first century, women have made substantial contributions to cash-crop agriculture.

Much as the government and other development partners have had strides to preach and advocate for equality, there has been some adherence amidst some setbacks.

This is no difference in the Rwenzori region where women still have the sole role of kitchen work, looking after children, farming, collecting fire wood, water to mention but a few, where as their male counter parts have to sit at the nearest trading centers, produce and sometimes provide for the family.

This was witnessed during the recent catastrophe of floods that hit Kasese, Bundibugyo and Ntoroko Districts on the night of May 7th 2020 that saw several properties worth billions of money lost especially in Kasese District where about 5 main rivers burst their banks due to flooding.

Women crossing Kithakena river in Maliba running for their lives on an improvised bridge after the recently constructed one was swept away.

During a risk assessment conducted on 9th by our staff several touching stories from different affected women revealed their plight.

In Maliba sub county Kasese District it was evident that women were at the fore front of the floods fight as they were seen carrying property, firewood and other belongings.

An interview in the same place with Kabugho Sedress, 42 whose whole plantation was swept away revealed her plight. Kabugho is a widow and a mother of 7 children with only 4 still alive and she has to take care of their needs everyday as the only sole parent.

“I saw Kabugho fall in the river with firewood on her back, thank God she was saved but her firewood was swept away”, said our staff and eye witness in the field.

In Kakindo Village Maliba sub county 91 out of 120 households with a population of 1005 are affected by the floods.

Moving to Kasese municipality, it was the same story as it was in Maliba, women were seen in River Nyamwamba in Kilembe fetching firewood from the logs of trees that were pushed downstream by the floods. Just imagine that vulnerability just in case the water built afresh and found them in the river.

Women collecting firewood in Nyamwamba river.

It is evident that women still face and feel the pinch of these catastrophes compared to their male counter parts.

This has also come amidst the covid-19 lock down in Uganda where domestic violence has also increased still affecting women that have been battered.

As GEDA Uganda we have continued to engage and do referrals for GBV victims and our nutritional and kitchen gardening program has continued to bring hope to the faces of the women amidst the lockdown and now floods through the small start up kitchen gardening fund.

                                        Kabugho being interviewed by Medius our staff.

As Gender Environment and Development Action, we have continued to Promote gender equity and equality, prevent and respond to violence against women and girls; boys and men. Through Men engage as our other area of our expertise; We are looking forward to an environment and world where all people are equal and free from discrimination – in which gender justice and human rights are pro.

We are also urging the Government to include GBV as a component as they offer relief during these hard times of Covid-19 and now floods in the Rwenzori region.

 

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