Rescued but infected with HIV: Teso child marriage survivor’s story
In July 2023, the life of a 17-year-old girl, who dropped out in Senior Four, changed forever. After staying at home in Adoku Village, Osuguro Parish, Olio Sub-County in Serere District for two years, Mary (not her real name) enrolled on a skilling programme at Women and Girls’ Rights Advocacy Uganda (WAGRAU), a community -based organisation. Mary, who had dropped out in Senior Four because of her grandmother’s inability to pay her tuition, was lucky to enroll on a tailoring course with dozens of other vulnerable teenage girls. She completed the course.
However, after graduation, the girl could not afford to buy her own sewing machine and neither could the organisation that trained
her. But she was able to rent from a woman who had the machine but had given birth and was not using it. In the process of tailoring at a nearby trading centre, she bumped into a man who was in the area for a painting gig.
“He told me he was ready to buy me a chewing machine. He took me away from home. He took me to Soroti,” she said.
Upon reaching Soroti, about 40 kilometres from her home, the tone of the conversation soon changed. It moved from “I will buy you a sewing machine, I will take care of you” to isolating her from her family and friends.
“From there he grabbed my phone, took all my lines and decided to break them all and threw them away. He did that because he never wanted my grand mom to know my whereabouts,” she recalled.
Deborah Akello, founder and team leader at WAGRAU, said the man, old enough to be the girl’s father, would lock her up in the house, beat her, and leave her without food until he came back after drinking.
“So, when he leaves in the morning, he comes back at around 10pm drunk, slaps her around and says she is useless. Somehow she managed to escape,”Akello narrated to Monitor.
According to Akello the girl, who had conceived, went to one of the neighbours and called her friend who is a nurse at the centre where she was tailoring and asked the the medical worker to send her money to transport herself from Soroti City, back to Serere District for an abortion.
Child Marriages And Teenage Pregnancies On The Rise In Rwenzori Region.
Traditional marriages are still part of our society and experts believe this aids child marriages. Police’s failure to arrest suspects has been seen as a major reason behind the high numbers of child marriages and teenage pregnancies being registered in the Rwenzori region. We look at the story of one of the young girls who was forced into an early marriage by circumstances beyond her control.
Poverty, alcoholism cited as leading causes of teenage pregnancies
In Teso region, particularly in Soroti District, a concerning rise in school dropouts is alarming locals, as increasing numbers of teenage girls are ensnared by early pregnancies or pushed into premature marriages. Economic hardships and rampant alcoholism are believed to be fueling this unsettling trend.
POVERTY, BAD CULTURAL PRACTICES, AND NEGATIVE GENDER NORMS DRIVING CHILD MARRIAGE
Majority of mothers forced to marry at an early age are leaving in misery and regrets as some go for days on an empty stomach with their children. Those who became victims of child marriage are now carrying out for strict interventions to curb down the vice especially in Northern Uganda with the highest cases of child marriage Kitgum being the lead district. Ambience Kitgum is one of the seven Districts in the Acholi sub-region in Northern Uganda. With a total population of over two hundred thousand, Kitgum is listed among the northern districts with high cases of teen bides.
Why child marriages have persisted in northern Uganda
Poverty coupled with cultural practices have resulted in increased vulnerabilities of children in the northern district of Kitgum, exposing many girls to child mgrriages. Local leaders and social workers say the number of those affected continues to grow.
Mr Patrick Kilama Otika, the head teacher of Kitgum Prison Primary School, says many girls have been forced out of school.
“A girl, who was supposed to sit for Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) in 2022 did not sit. She was married off. Even this year, our candidate – a child was eloped and the parents did nothing and the girl did not register,” he says.
Mr Kilama blames the situation on negative gender norms and harmful cultural practices.
Cülturally, for us we look at girls as wives. Whether the girl is very young, I can begin to call the girl my in-law. So, the belief of our community is not promoting girl-child education,” he savs.
Sexual offences in Busoga
Jinja residents want sexual offences bill passed
Civil society organisations have expressed concern at the rampant increase in sexual offence cases in Busoga sub-region, which forces many children out of school. The cases include rape, defilement and child marriages, which some blame on poor parenting and poverty. Some parents reportedly look at defilement as a financial break-through from the expensive chore of taking care of their girls.
MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT ARE DEMANDING FOR THE CHILDREN’S AUTHORITY.
Members of Parliament want government to operationalize the Childrens’ Authority a body that will be responsible to address issues affecting Childrens. The Parliamentary Chairperson, Committee on Gender labor and social development Kabahend Flavia is of the view that the Childrens’ Authority will play a critical role in guiding parliament and planning for Children The children’s Act defines a child as a person below the age of 18. This vulnerable group suffers from violence and abuse that is wide spread occurring in various forms including sexual, physical, emotional and maltreatment, thus affecting the wellbeing of children both physically and mentally During the capacity building meeting for members of Parliament on laws and policies that align with the 2020 UN general Assembly on children, organized by Joy for Children, the Members demanded that government needs to operationalize the Childrens’ Authority that will be responsible to handle issues related to children.
Police say cases of child abuse are on the rise, and children need to be empowered to report.
Police child and family protection unit has raised concern over the increasing cases of crimes committed against children. The assistant Commissioner of police Atuhairwe Maureen who heads the child and family protection unit says the police crime report of 2022 recorded over 13,000 cases of child abuse and out of these, 1,240 cases constituted child abuse and torture.
Help children understand the limit of their rights
Agnes Nantambi- New Vision
Youth and children affairs state minister Sarah Mateke has implored parents to help their children to understand the limits of their (children) rights.
According to Mateke, children have gone overboard concerning their rights and are instead violating the rights of others.
The state minister says a child one time stormed her office demanding her mother to take him to an ‘expensive school’ since it was ‘his right to go to that school, well knowing that the parent did not have the capacity to afford such a school.
At times, the children have gone overboard, you should know the limits and the capacity of your parents because if your parents can only afford shillings 200,000 as school fees per term, you shouldn’t force them to pay shillings 1.5 million,” she adds.
Mateke made the call while officiating at the day of the African Child organised by Girls Not Brides Uganda on Friday in partnership with the World Vision.
She explained that those days children used to be seen as for the whole community, but because of the rights that came up, nobody wants to know whose child is doing what or even guide them, fearing that they will be criminalised for punishing errant children.
Cash shortfalls threatening efforts to end child marriage
Bill Okech and Alex Ashaba – Daily Monitor
Officials say poor funding limits processes to follow up on reported sexual offences against children.
Local authorities have said low funding in the child protection system has hampered the fight against early marriages amid increasing cases of sexual offences against children in western Uganda.
Daily Press Uganda
Promoting Children’s Rights is not Encouraging Moral Decadence – Children Rights Advocates
Children rights advocates have stressed that society should change their mindset about promotion of children’s rights as an aspect that molds better persons in them.
Within the community, children rights have been looked at as elimination of guardians’ disciplinary role with their children. It is common to hear people refer to it as the Western world influence on Africans to abandon discipline.
Sarah Mateke, the state minister for mentioned that because of misperceptions of children rights, the community has abandoned children which is not right. She noted that it is time parents sought to understand the rights so that they can be able to strike balance.
We have had cases where children go overboard like placing demands on parents that they can not fulfil. Children as well should be helped to understand the limits of their rights. You find also parents bring reports to police concerning their children that should be their responsibility, said Sarah Mateke
Bill Okech- Daily Monitor
Tororo-Kamdini road construction: Govt struggles to protect locals from sexual exploitation
The government hgs set up environment and social safeguards requirements for the Tororo-Kamini road project to check sexual abuse on the road.
The 340km road is under the North Eastern Road Corridor Asset Management Project (NERAMP).
For the NERAMP Lango cluster (Dokolo-Kamdini), the government has hired Joy For Children Uganda (JFCU), a non-profit children’s rights organisation, to help mitigate social risks associated with violence against children and gender-based violence due to road works.
The executive director of JFCU, Mr Moses Ntenga, said the organisation would mitigate incidents of violence against children and gender-based violence due to the project.
“Our core mandate as an organisation is to ensure that children of Uganda grow up with dignity and they’re able to live or grow and maximise their full potential,” he said.
Mr Ntenga added: “We shall make sure children are taken care of. their rights are observed, their needs are met and then they are able to grow up and be responsible citizens in future.”
MP Adeke to reintroduce the Sexual Offences Bill
Ester Oluka- Daily Monitor
Parliament of Uganda granted the Soroti Woman MP Hon Sarah Adeke leave to reintroduce the Sexual Offences Bill which seeks to consolidate the Uganda’s Laws with changes in nature of sexual crimes.
This is the second attempt by parliament through a private member’s bill to introduce a broader law that will address the evolving nature of sexual crimes and increase in cases of sexual violence .
“There is need for a single piece of legislation on sexual offences to guide effective prevention, protection (of victims) and procecution of these offences, Ms Adeke Explained
Sexual offences driving Busoga girls out of school
Ms Namasoga said the abject poverty being experienced in the eastern part of Uganda is eating up children’s future.
ASP Michael Kasadha, the Busoga North Regional Police spokesperson, said the biggest number of sexual offences registered is the issue to do with defilement, adding that on average two cases of defilement are recorded at Kamuli Central Police Station. Defilement cases are between 70 percent and 80 percent of the sexual offences we record in the entire Busoga North region, Mr Kasadha said.
Analysis of the data collected from Kamuli and Jinja districts, however, show a girl is defiled every day in the region since many cases go unreported.
“All schools in the area have registered a significant decrease in enrollment because the boys are busy cutting sugarcane and are looking for money. And since the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, the girls are less interested in education,” she said.
Sexual offences Bill: One step closer to ending child sexual abuse in Uganda.
Sandra K. Tukwasibwe – Daily monitor
Government of Uganda has made tremendous efforts towards addressing child sexual abuse including passing the Sexual Offences Bill 2019 which was passed by Parliament in May 2021 but not assented into law by the President. The Bill is critical in preventing all forms of violence against children; it is the first legislation that fully addresses the issue of child marriage which is rampant in the country. If passed into law, the Sexual Offences Bill will offer legal protection to survivors and those that are a risk for child sexual abuse. It will protect girls from child marriage and teenage pregnancy key recommendations include: 1) setting a minimum age for marriage at 18 years old; 2) providing for no exceptions upon parental consent or court’s authorisation; 3) criminalising child marriage and enforcing clear sanctions. The creation of a robust and uniform legal framework relating to child marriage and teenage pregnancy is a key path to addressing child marriage in Uganda. The Bill will encourage government to be accountable in the execution of policies, enactment of by-laws and coming up with strategic plans aimed at addressing child marriage.
Going forward, we understand that legislation alone is not enough to end child sexual abuse but it’s a starting point to move towards ending all forms of violence against children.
Just a year ago, not even the most ardent enthusiast of Hollywood fantasy movies would have predicted that a pandemic with a contagion on the scale of the coronavirus would spread across the world, render even the most well-resourced and sophisticated health systems despondent, claim tens of thousands of lives in its wake, lead to closure of borders, cause total lockdown and bring the global economy to a ground halt all within a time span of about three months.
Yet the emergence of COVID-19, initially dismissed as a Wuhan problem, a province in China credited as its origin, has swept across countries like a raging hurricane. Now the World Health Organisation has warned countries to expect more infections and deaths in the coming months.
Kampala City has contended with recurring cholera outbreaks for several years that it has almost become a “norm.” This explains why the counter measures devised by authorities against such outbreaks are always largely to contain the spread of the disease rather than prevent it.
Yet Cholera as a disease and its spread is simply a hygiene issue like use of clean water for cooking and washing, treated or boiled drinking water, use of latrines, proper hygiene in homes and local commercial food places and proper disposal of wastes. With such simple practices employed, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and the line ministries can eliminate cholera completely.
30 November 2018 will go down in the history of Uganda as the day when the first ever National Girl summit took place. It was organised by Girls Not Brides Uganda (GNBU), National Alliance, a composition of 78 Civil Society Organisations that Joy for Children Uganda (JFCU) hosts, co-chairs and coordinates. The alliance works collectively to end child marriage and teenage pregnancy in Uganda.
She speaks with regret and pain painted on her face. Words explaining when she was raped and impregnated by a male friend in wee hours come from far like an elderly person climbing a hill. She labours to control tears as she reflects on the agony that came with that incident. Mary Lydia Kafuko, 17, who has just completed her Primary Leaving Exams (PLE) at Agule Primary School in Pallisa District, experienced a nightmare in 2015 when a male family friend raped her on their way from a club.
We had nothing to eat since my husband who was just 18-years-old had no job and the entire family turned against me alleging that I had brought bad fortune in their family,
she narrated.
A-17-year-old girl, who sat for her Primary Leaving Examinations at Ogule central primary school in Paliisa district stood at a podium at the national girl summit in Kampala on Friday and told her story of one year in child marriage.
She referred to it as hell on earth; she survived by the grace of God. However her child at only one month of age, couldn’t withstand and died. Her revelations steered emotional shock among the participants who included government officials, Members of Parliament, religious leaders, private sector representatives, civil society and United Nations agencies and media at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala.
Early motherhood.Teenage pregnancy in Uganda stands at 25 per cent. Sumaiah Najjumba, now a grandmother at 27, is part of that statistic, having conceived at 12, narrates Roland D. Nasasira.
When I meet Sumaiah Najjumba at her home in Kapisa Village, Mazimasa Sub-county in Butaleja District, she is washing a saucepan to prepare meals for her family. She has just finished breastfeeding her daughter, who is just three weeks old. It is a humble homestead, composed of a number of grass-thatched houses; with chicken, ducks, goats, naked and half naked children loitering around.
WASHINGTON, October 13, 2016— The World Bank today launched a Global Gender-Based Violence (GGBV) Task Force to strengthen the institution’s response through its projects to issues involving sexual exploitation and abuse.
The new Task Force will be comprised primarily of outside experts on gender-based violence, supported by a small team of specialist World Bank staff. It will build on existing World Bank and other work to tackle violence against women and girls, advising on strengthened approaches to identifying threats and applying lessons in World Bank projects to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse.
KAMPALA— Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and women Members of Parliament have called on Parliament to expeditiously pass the Marriage bill into law.
They argue that the law is long overdue yet it is needed to address challenges in marriages.
This was during a meeting between Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) and CSOs to discuss the progress of the bill and agree on the way forward.
The chairperson UWOPA round table on Marriage bill, Veronica Bichetero said the bill has been on the shelves for a long time since 2013…
Daily Monitor, SATURDAY JUNE 9 2018 — There are a number of characteristics that cut across most, if not all slums around the world, including those in Kampala.
While they are comprised of big populations, they are also characterised with somewhat high levels of poor sanitation and hygiene. The Makerere Kivulu slum area is not any different. It is defined by deep trenches, filled with black water that flows to nowhere, littered with polythene bags, plastics and at the same time stinky…