Hope, Growth, and New Beginnings for the teenage mothers & their children

From the “Better Nutrition for Children Under 5 Born to Teenage Mothers” Project, Supported by the Foundation for Community Development and Empowerment (FCDE)

In the quiet village of Nyangorongo, where challenges once seemed endless, change has taken root, with steady stitches, healthy meals, and hopeful smiles.

Meet Nyakato Marion, a young mother who once felt alone and uncertain about her future. After joining the FCDE-supported project, everything began to shift. She received training in tailoring, not just how to thread a needle, but how to stitch together confidence, purpose, and a livelihood. With courage and determination, Marion rented a small room, set up her sewing machine, and opened her own tailoring business. Today, she earns between UGX 50,000 and 100,000 weekly, enough to feed her child, and cater for a few other basic necessities, and even save a little. “Before, I didn’t know where my next meal would come from,” she says. “Now, I look at my child and know I can give her more than I had.”

Nyakato Marion in her shop

But the project didn’t stop at skills training. Marion and others also learned about MIYCAN — Maternal, Infant, Young Child, and Adolescent Nutrition and how to use tools like the MUAC (Mid-Upper Arm Circumference) tape to check if their children are growing well. They were given iron-rich beans and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to plant, crops that do more than fill the stomach; they nourish the brain, strengthen the body, and protect little ones from illness.

Then there’s Musoki Fortunate, also a young mum, with a bright-eyed 3-year-old. Like Marion, Musoki joined the project, unsure of how she would provide for her child. Through tailoring training, she found her footing and now earns about UGX 20,000 a week working from home. It may not sound like much, but for Musoki, it means rice on the table, soap for bathing, medicine when needed, and the quiet pride of saying, “I did this for my child.”

And it’s not just tailoring. Some young women chose hairdressing, learning to braid, twist, and style with skill and care. Though they’re just starting, a few assignments here and there in their villages are adding up, coins turning into confidence, practice turning into profession.

This is more than a project.
It’s a lifeline.
It’s dignity restored.
It’s children thriving, not despite their beginnings, but because of the love, knowledge, and opportunity their mothers now hold in their hands.

 

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.

GEDA Uganda conducts capacity building of VHTs and Health professionals on MIYCAN in Maliba S/C Kasese

Kasese is one of the Districts in Uganda with the highest burden of stunting amongst children under five years. The district is also ranked 3rd in Uganda and first in the Rwenzori 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.

A study conducted by GEDA Uganda in 2023 in Kasese District revealed that 56.4% of children born to teenage mothers were stunted with Maliba sub-county having the worst-case scenario. The study further highlighted that majority of the teenage mothers had limited or no sources of income and livelihood thus increasing their vulnerability to food insecurity and consequently food poverty.

A knowledge gap on Maternal infant and young child and adolescent health and nutrition was also indicated as a major risk factor to the high prevalence of stunting among the children born to the teenage mothers. In regards to the above, GEDA Uganda through a project “Better Nutrition for Children” in Maliba sub county supported by Foundation for Community Development (FCDE) and Fr.Roose Fonds organized a training to train members of the Village Health Teams (VHTs) and Health professionals working in the health centers in Maliba Subcounty in trying to address the knowledge gap.

The two categories of VHTs and health professionals were targeted for the training so that they have increased knowledge and skills on MIYCAN in order to support in cascading the same information to the teenage mothers and other older mothers through health and nutrition education whenever they come to the health centers to seek for health services such as Antenatal care (ANC), Young Child Clinics (YCC), Postnatal care (PNC) among others. Similarly, for the VHTs to be in position to support the mothers with the same information at community level during home visits and community meetings respectively.

The two days training that took place on 14th and 13th October 2024  at Maliba Town council hall attracted health professionals from Isule HC, Nyangorongo HC and Mukati Health center III, VHTs from Isule and Nyangorongo Parishes where the project is being implemented participated in the capacity building training too.

Speaking at the training GEDA’s Deputy Managing Director, emphasized the integrated approach of the project implementation and requested the participants to take keen interest in acquiring the knowledge during this training as this knowledge will be used by them in helping project beneficiaries the teenage mothers as well as the entire community. He said the objective of the training was to build their capacity in  MIYCAN, introduce the better nutrition for children under five project to them and seeking their support in the execution of the project and beyond.

GEDA’s Deputy MD addressing the health professionals.

He said GEDA was committed to continue supporting the communities but also fighting the teenage motherhood vice as this had continuously put the life of teenagers and their children at a bigger risk based on the research findings from the GEDA research.

He said 100 beneficiaries, teenage mothers and their children have been profiled and the roll out of other activities would commence shortly after the VHT/Health professionals training.

Flavia Kabugho the lead trainer took the participants through several sessions including but not limited to Introduction to nutrition, Integrating Nutrition Assessment, Counselling, and Support into Health Service Delivery, Intergenerational Cycle of Malnutrition among others.  The two days training was interactive and included a number of practical sessions on determining the nutrition status of an individual.

Flavia training the health workers

Several participants appreciated the training saying this was key for them and that they meet several scenarios in their communities and health facilities that needed the knowledge given to them.

Babirye Susan a senior clinical officer at Isule HCIII said “I appreciate the training because i was meeting same scenarios and experiences as shared with us today, this knowledge will help us serve our clients better”.

Practical session on determining the nutrition status of an individual.

GEDA Uganda will roll out in the coming days with meeting and training the teenage mothers that were profiled prior to this training.

GEDA Uganda launches a new project for Nutrition of under 5s in Kasese.

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. This presents a double burden.

 

Participants listen in during the Inception meeting presentation

In 2023, GEDA- Uganda conducted a scientific study on the factors associated with stunting for children aged 6-59 months born to teenage mothers in Kasese District. The study revealed that 56.4% of children born to teenage mothers were stunted. This is  far above the national and Rwenzori Regional Average stunting rates of 29% and 40.6 %( UDHS, 2016) respectively.

In trying to address these challenges, GEDA-Uganda proposed a nutrition intervention aimed at improving the nutrition status of children under five years born to teenage mothers in Kasese considering Maliba sub-county one of the scientific research target sub counties that came out to be leading with high prevalence of  teenage mothers as a pilot sub county.

Senior Nutritionist Mr. Bwambale Benard presenting issues of malnutrition and stuntedness at the inception.

Addressing different stakeholders at the sub county headquarters in Kabuyiri Maliba sub county during the project inception on Thursday 5th September 2024, GEDA’s senior nutritionist said that the stunting burden was high and thus there was need for different stakeholders to take action.

He further took participants through stunting and it’s effects for them to understand it better, it’s statistics around the globe for them (participants) to appreciate the magnitude of the problem at hand.

He later highlighted that the project being launched was going to be a pilot and has been set as a Parish Nutrition Modal (PNM) that would consider teenage mothers under the age of 18 lactating or pregnant. The project will also work closely with all stakeholders including the VHTs, Health centers staff, sub county leadership among others. Two parishes of Nyangorongo and Isule were given first priority.

Maliba Sub county Chairperson LC3 giving closing remarks

Speaking at the same meeting GEDA’s Managing Director Ms.Bihunirwa Medius  called upon parents to fight stuntedness and Malnutrition by feeding on balanced diet and further said there is a lot of work that ought to be done by Kasese District stakeholders based on the results that were shared.

The sub county Community Development officer reported increased teenage mothers in the parishes of Isule, Mubuku and Nyangorongo among others.

Closing the inception meeting, Mr. Robert Kiryamuthaka, the area local council three chairperson, concurred with the CDO but urged parents and guardians to invest in education of their children to avoid such scenarios of teenage pregnancies, stuntedness and malnutrition.

GEDA Uganda joins Kasese District in commemoration of Day of the African Child-DAC

The Day of the African Child serves as a platform to amplify children’s voices and condemn the violent acts committed against them.

Kasese RDC, Vice Chairperson LC5 and other officials celebrating with the Students during the commemoration.

Every year on June 16th, the world comes together to discuss the challenges and opportunities in fully realizing the rights of African children. This day traces its origins back to 1976 when students in Soweto, South Africa were assassinated for protesting against educational injustice and inequality. It serves as a powerful reminder to our communities to prioritize children’s needs, ensuring they grow and reach their full potential.

GEDA’s Deputy MD receiving a certificate of appreciation from the RDC Kasese during the commemoration.

This year’s theme was “Education for all children in Africa: the time is now“. Kasese District commemorated this day on the 31st July 2024 at the Kasese mult-purpose hall calling upon all stakeholders to listen to the young child, provide education and all necessary scholastic materials.

Several achools participated in this event speaking about the challenges they face and calling upon all stakeholders to come to their rescue if they must survivie and complete their education.

GEDA Uganda was among the several stakeholders and CSOs that supported and participated in this year’s event.

GEDA Uganda joins the world to commemorate the World Food Safety (WFSD) day.

It is estimated that about six hundred million  (600,000,000) people in the world get sick annually because they ate unsafe food. Out of this number 420,000 people die worldwide because the food they ate was unsafe.  This is about 7.5% of the world population that is about 8 Billion people.

To highlight the need for coordinated, global efforts to address food safety issues,  the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) initiated this day that was first commemorated on 7th June 2019. Since then every 7th June the World commemorates this day reflecting on the challenges of unsafe food to the globe.

This year’s commemoration was held under the theme “Prepare for the unexpected“.

It is against this background that GEDA Uganda together with her Partners Global Consumer Center (CONSENT) and Kasese District Local Government commemorated this day in Kasese District engaging several District stakeholders including among others the District political and technical wing, the Religious leaders from the Anglican faith, Catholic and Moslem community, Security both police and UPDF, the media (Guide radio, Messiah FM, Light FM, UBC Ngeya, New Vision and Daily monitor) since these are key with the kind of audience they access.

Kasese District is one of the Districts among others that have suffered the effects of different kinds of unsafe food that may be linked to several illnesses as highlighted prior. The issues of using rodent poison in post harvest handling, the famous “Nsanga meat” (rotten meat), the bony fish, drying maize and cassava on tarmac roads and other rudimentary PHH methods that have led to severe aflatoxins especially in maize.

GEDA Uganda and partners conducted a number of activities including radio talk shows, trainings of the above mentioned categories on food safety and nutrition, road drives within the markets in Kasese Municipality preaching the gospel of safe food.

speaking at the inauguration of the week long activities in Verina Gardens the Chairperson Kasese District Mr.Eriphazi Muhindi Bukombi appreciated the efforts of the partners in fighting the bad food handling practices which he said the District was behind these efforts and would continue to support such interventions. He appreciated the Hon. District Councilors and the entire technical wing that had spared the day to come and get trained in food safety and nutrition and asked them to be ambassadors of the food safety message to their electorate. He said the District had picked interest in this subject matter during the World Consumer day in March when CONSENT and her partner GEDA engaged them on issues of consumer rights, food safety among other important aspects of life.

Mr. Muhindi Eriphazi District Chairperson addressing participants at Verina Gardens in Kasese Municipality.

Facilitating at this inauguration training, the main Facilitator Mr. Bwambale Benard the head of programs at CONSENT emphasised the need for leaders to adhere to this message but also go ahead and preach the same because it would defeat logic for example why a number of leaders would speak about the same thing like Parish Development Model at a function and leave out key issues that directly affect the health and life of their people.  He advised them to take on division of roles, for example an LCI chairperson would speak about PDM, a councilor speaks about food safety and a Chairperson speaks about nutrition. This way different messages would be passed to the gathering easily.

Mr. Benard training District leaders political, technical and security on matters food safety & Nutrition

Benard took leaders into several engagements of food safety, nutrition and leaders at all levels appreciated the challenge at hand. Several leaders across board confessed having been victims of several issues for example not bothering about expiry dates on products, eating food cooked in polythene bags, misuse of agro-chemicals among others.

The team had a week long number of activities. Several participants pledged to be food safety ambassadors during their day to today engagements.

Religious leaders pose for a photo after a long day training at the Kasese Youth Center.

 

Training of Women at the Catholic Diocese of Kasese
Mr. Bwambale Benard and Yosia Baluku during a radio talkshow on food safety and Nutrition at Guide FM,

GEDA Uganda in high gears for World food safety day

World Food Safety Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2018. The day is observed annually on June 7th to raise awareness about the importance of food safety and to promote actions that help prevent, detect, and manage foodborne risks. The initiative was spearheaded by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), recognizing that food safety is a shared responsibility that affects everyone in the food chain.

The first World Food Safety Day was celebrated on June 7, 2019, under the theme “Food Safety, Everyone’s Business.” This annual observance emphasizes the need for everyone to understand the role they play in ensuring that the food they consume is safe and that standards are upheld at every stage, from production to consumption.

The Rwenzori region where GEDA Uganda operates is characterized with several food safety challenges ranging from post harvest handling, misuse of agro-chemicals, food borne illnesses, Contamination (Biological, Chemical, or Physical), consumer perceptions and ignorance among others. One other key issue of concern is the “Sanga meat” (rotten/unhealth meat) that people consume without considering the negative consequences. Amidst the leadership interventions, there is still alot that needs to be done to completely stop such consumption of harmful meat.

In trying to mitigate these challenges GEDA Uganda has aligned a series of activities to commemorate this day in Kasese by engaging the Local leaders, consumers, media houses, religious institutions among others to create awareness but also challenge the different stakeholders to act.

The commemoration continues our campaign of unsafe foods in our communities ranging from expiry products, the “nsanga meat” phenomenon, use of rodent poison in food preservation among others and we believe engaging different stakeholders will have an impact and cause a mindset change in our communities.

 

Unsafe food linked to the rate of Children stunting in Kasese.

In Uganda, it’s estimated that 29% of children aged 6-59 months are stunted, 4% wasted and
11% underweight with the highest burden of stunting (40.6%) among children under five years
registered in the Tooro sub region(UBOS, 2016) where Kasese District is located. In addition,
Kasese District is battling with a high caseload of stunting among children aged 6-59 months at
44.9% way above the Tooro sub regional and National statistics (Enos Mirembe Masereka,
2020).
Stunting affects the physical and cognitive development of children affecting school
performance (UNICEF, 2023). Additionally, it compromises the child’s immunity increasing
their risks to infections as well as affecting the overall health and productivity of human beings
(WHO, 2020)(Worldbank, 2021).

Following this trend, Gender-Environment and Development Action conducted a research in Kasese District, particularly in Busongora North, one of the counties with the highest rate of teenage mothers to ascertain the stunting of Children aged 6-59 months born to teenage mothers. 337 teenage mothers from 36 villages of Maliba, Bugoye sub counties and Rugendabara and Kitswamba Sub-counties in Busongora North. The results showed that 56.4% of the children tested were stunted a very worrying number. Below is a summary of the findings;

75% of the teenage mothers had a caesarean  mode of delivery
– 41.2% of the children were born as preterm(before 9months)
– 78% of the mothers joined primary school
– 19% reached secondary school
– Only 3% had started some form of a course
– 91.9% were totally unemployed
– Only 3.9% earned atleast a wage
– 6.2% delivered from home supported by traditional  birth attendants(TBA)
– 69% earned/got not more than 50K Ugx in a month
– 47% had very poor food consumption  patterns including feeding on unsafe food.
Note: 56.4% of the children born to teenage  mothers were stunted with 38.6% a
moderately and 17.8% are severely stunted.
More details can be accessed HERE

As the world food safety day comes closer-6th June 2024, GEDA Uganda is mandated and will continue sensitizing the masses about the dangers of unsafe food, malnutrition and do what it can to change the status quo in our communities.

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