Contributing to the reduction of Child Marriages’ Project in Kasese District

Alliance for Children and youth Uganda (A4CY-U) in partnership with Kasese District Local Government with support from The Girls First Fund, is implementing a two years project with a goal to contribute to reduction of child marriage in Kasese District through increased access to quality Sexual Reproductive Health services and Economic empowerment for Girls at risk of child marriage.

Since 2019, Alliance for Children and Youth Uganda has been receiving grant support from the Girls First Fund, a philanthropic and charitable fund of Capital for Good and Geneva Global, Inc. We committed to reach out to girls, young mothers and their caregivers in Maliba, Bugoye and Bwesumbu sub counties in Kasese district, and mobilize communities, duty bearers and stakeholders to end Child marriages and prevent teenage pregnancies through access to quality SRH services.

This project is designed on the premise that economically empowered girls who are at risk of child marriage will take charge of their lives and destiny by actively engaging in Household income generation, and facilitate them to meet their basic needs as well as accessing Quality and friendly Sexual Reproductive health services and Rights.

Our target is primarily Girls out of school and their care givers, we financially enable them to mitigate the impact of child marriage and increase gender equality through enhanced Household incomes that will enable families to meet their basic needs. Girls and Adolescents are talked to and guided to access quality Sexual Reproductive Health services and information, to help them make informed healthy decisions, delay sex, concentrate on their studies (complete school) and thereby delay getting married.

In Kasese district, Poverty fuels the prevalence of child marriage where girls are conserved as an economic asset from which families can gain wealth through bride price. Destitute households see girls as an intolerable economic burden due to inability of their parents to meet their basic and other needs.

This project is being implemented up to June 2024.

To mitigate poverty associated teenage pregnancies and child marriages, our work focuses on economic empowerment of girls and their care givers through:

• Training girls on locally marketable skills and equipping them with startup tool-kits.
• Supporting them (girls) and their families to form, register and operate Group Based savings Associations as a stepping stone to the use of more formal financial services in villages.
• Supporting girls at risk of child marriage and their care givers especially critically Vulnerable(destitute) Households with interest free revolving microloans to start small businesses and be able to pay fees for girls willing to go back to school.
• Support the sub county Community Development Officers to conduct monthly monitoring visits to the project beneficiaries and the formed groups to ensure project sustainability, referral and linkages to other government programmes.
• Support girls who dropped out of school with second chance education opportunities by paying their school fees to help the complete secondary level education.

Achievements so far.

1. 98 out of 100 target girls in Maliba and Bugoye sub counties have successfully been trained in marketable vocational skills of hairdressing, sweater knitting and craft shoe making. In Bwesumbu Sub County, we are planning on reaching out to more 50 girls with the same training and skills support.
2. 98 beneficiary girls have been clustered into manageable groups of 3-4 girls and have been given start up tool kits to help them start their own saloons and business in their sub counties of origin. A three months’ rent was equally paid for them to allow their businesses grow.
3. 300 caregivers and 100 beneficiary girls have been trained in business entrepreneurship and small scale business management.
4. A4CY-U has established an equipped adolescent clinic where girls and boys access free SRH services and information. Today, this adolescent clinic has been opened and well facilitated at Bwesumbu health center III in a bid to take services closer to the intended beneficiaries.
5. We conduct community camps in the community as outreach to ensure sexual reproductive health services are accessible to youths and girls in hard to reach areas.
6. By December 2022, 2038 adolescents have been reached and accessed the adolescent friendly clinic for services like Comprehensive Sexuality education; Abstinence, services to prevent, diagnose and treat STIs and counseling on family planning.
7. Trained a strong and vibrant community structures of 60 girl to girl mentors who do beneficiary follow ups, counselling, report cases for further management and support, and refer cases to appropriate offices. These have been trained in reporting, counselling, life skills and referral pathways. During the corona lockdown period, the girl to girl mentors were so helpful in keeping the beneficiaries and other community members abreast of project, developmental information and services.

There’s more need for resources to:

1. Continued sensitization of the factors contributing to persistent child marriages in Kasese district, especially the cultural institution to denounce completely the negative practices and beliefs like child marriages and teenage pregnancies.
2. There’s need for more engagements on the need to educate the girl child, like the common saying, when you ‘educate a woman you save the nation’. Parent’s need to embrace and support girl child education, and take back those who have given birth and dropped out of school back to complete school and live meaningful lives.
3. Health talks in schools should be emphasized, to reach out to the adolescents on different topics like Rights, personal hygiene and Menstrual Hygiene Management, dangers of early sex, pregnancies and marriages, career guidance, and use of female role models in the community to influence positive behavior among adolescent girls and boys.
4. Need to formulate sub county based by-laws on child protection and discouraging child marriages. Child protection committees/SOVIC needs refresher trainings on their roles and responsibly especially on identification of child protection issues, reporting and referral.
5. Popularizing the Sauti 116 Uganda Child toll free helpline for reporting all child abuse related cases in the community. Many people in the community are not aware of this.
6. Extension of youth friendly services in the community especially hard to reach areas in the District, to help in quick access to basic SRH services and information. We have received numerous calls from people from other sub counties where we are not currently working.