Dreaming Again:
Ugandan Women Mentor Teen Moms to Get Lives Back
Written by: Rhonet Atwiine. Photography by Richard Mugambe
Thursday, November 21, 2024
At a contemporary housing unit in Bunamwaya, a suburb outside Uganda’s capital Kampala, Grace (not her real name) a 14-year-old first-time mother, prepares porridge for her three-months toddler.
“I prepare porridge with milk in the morning, it has improved my health and I can feed my baby,” she shares, lighting the fire for her porridge.
The ration, a mixture of maize meal, powdered milk, and Soy is supplied monthly by Teen Moms’ Voice, a local charity that is supporting her to manage her post-term nutrition, and that of the child.
The organization targets the welfare of teenage mothers especially the victims of sexual violence.
Grace had been in Primary Six and was progressing with school. However, a pattern of defilement by her mother’s boyfriend cut the dream short.
Every time her mother would leave the house for work in the morning, her stepfather would take turns on her. She conceived on the 7th attempt.
“When I told him I was pregnant, he insisted I keep it a secret and said he would find a way to tell my mother himself which he did not do. So, I also lied to my mother that I had a boyfriend,” she shares.
The man has since been convicted of Aggravated Defilement, a sexual violence crime in Ugandan law where the offender is a person with authority over the victim. He will serve about 20 years in jail. However, his damage could be a lifetime one.
A child mother under the Teen Mom Voice mentorship with her baby. Photo by Richard Mugambe.
The state of teenage pregnancy in Uganda!
Grace is part of the rising number of girls who drop out of school because of early pregnancies. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 24% of adolescent girls aged 15-19 in the country are pregnant or have already given birth.
Besides school dropouts, defilement, and sexual violence are causing serious health threats to young girls, including HIV/AIDS, fistula, abortion, and, most critically, the risk of death.
Datasets at Uganda’s Ministry of Health indicate that out of 3,000 maternal deaths recorded annually, 18% are mothers aged 19 years and below.
According to Dr. Henry Mwebesa, the Director General of Health Services, the Ministry is now taking newer initiatives to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancies from 24% to at most 15% within the next five years.
“To achieve this goal, we have revived our strategies. We are implementing several initiatives, including enabling policies and frameworks, increasing advocacy for adolescent health, and fostering collaborative partnerships,” he explains.
However, Mwebesa emphasizes the importance of collaboration across various sectors and highlights the critical role of parents and guardians in addressing teenage pregnancy.
“Teenage pregnancies are a national concern, and everyone plays a part. This is not an issue that should be left to the health sector alone—it should start from home. We need to provide accurate, age-appropriate information to our young people so they can make informed decisions about their lives,” he explains.
Gloria Aheebwa Nyakato takes a photo with a teen mother under the her organization’s mentorship program. Photo by Richard Mugambe.
Building a supportive community!
For Teen Moms’ Voice, the challenge can not only start and stop with sharing information. It must stretch from deliberate policy formulation initiatives to community-led approaches that support girls to thrive.
For young mothers, the organization is focusing on bettering the motherhood journey, especially for those who are victims of sexual violence and defilement.
They are identified through hospitals where the girls seek antenatal, the police where they usually seek legal redress, local leaders, and even individuals from the community.
With initiatives like the Nutrition and Feeding for mother and baby, economic support among others,
“We carry out a needs assessment and enroll them into our programs. We determine whether she is already a mother or expecting. If she is expecting, we start her on a fully paid antenatal program. Our goal is for her to work with her medical doctor from the time she discovers she is pregnant until she gives birth,” explains Gloria Ahebwa Nyakato, the lead, and founder of the organization.
Recognizing that many of these young girls lack information about pregnancy, the program offers prenatal classes to prepare them for the changes ahead and the reality of bringing a child into their lives.
The program also educates young mothers on the basics of pregnancy and infant care. Nyakato explains that since these mothers are young and first-time parents, they have little to no knowledge of motherhood.
“We teach them essential skills, such as how to bathe the baby, how to feed the baby, how to recognize when the baby has a high temperature, and how to identify emergencies. These basics are crucial for caring for their newborns, especially since many mothers experience depression after childbirth, particularly those who suffer tears during delivery,” Nyakato says.
A 2016 study by the Ministry of Education, which tracked sexually active schoolgirls aged 14–18, found that 80% of them dropped out of school because of pregnancy.
The organization has designed a program to help them return to school after giving birth, especially when the baby is past the breastfeeding period of about a year.
“We believe that education is key to every child, and that’s why we give it back to them. However, some girls choose not to re-enroll in their primary or secondary institutions and instead opt for life skill programs like tailoring,” Barbra Alimo Kasaija, the organization’s program officer says.
For those who choose technical skills, the program provides sewing machines, fabric, and a teacher to guide them, enabling them to make clothes for themselves and their babies.
They are taught how to make reusable baby diapers, reusable pads, and hair accessories like hair bands and puff holders, among others.
Alimo explains that those who agree to return to school are enrolled in different communities, not where they had lived previously. This helps to avoid the stigma and discrimination associated with being a school-going girl who has had a child.
While the mothers attend classes, their babies are cared for by caregivers provided. As well after giving birth, the model offers postnatal care through follow-ups. This is done to ensure that the mother is in a healthy condition.
During these after-visits, rent for the young mother is paid, and foodstuffs and other essential materials are also provided for both the baby and the mother.
Diapers, clothes and other assortment mobilized by Teen Mom voice to support young mothers. Photo by Richard Mugambe.
A practice thriving on cultural deficits
Despite these efforts, the war on teenage mother’s welfare is retarded by deeply entrenched cultural practices and beliefs, according to Nyakato.
In communities like the Eastern District of Mbale where the organization operates, cultural practices like circumcision rites, where it is believed that having a sexual encounter with a woman initiates boys fully into manhood after circumcision have spiked early pregnancy cases.
On top of this, children are getting excessive exposure to nudity on social media and a lack of necessities, especially among girls living in slums and rural communities.
“Most of the girls in our program are victims of their first sexual encounter after circumcision. In this cultural practice, the boy is prohibited from returning to the person with whom he had his first sexual encounter after circumcision. As a result, the girls are left without knowledge of the fathers, and no education” Nyakato shares.
However, while the program gives hope to teenage mothers, Alimo notes that some young girls have been forced into early marriages by their parents, particularly their mothers, because of fear of family embarrassment.
She adds that this has highly contributed to the rising number of teenage pregnancies in the country, as many parents believe, “As long as the man accepts the baby, what else do you want?”
“We have tried to combat this by intervening when we suspect a mother has such intentions; we take the girl away until the situation is resolved. To be honest, these are babies taking care of babies,” Alimo shares.
In addition, poverty, especially in rural and slum areas, has also contributed to teenage pregnancy. Many families live below the poverty line of $1.77 per person per day, which often forces young girls to fend for their families. This vulnerability increases their risk of falling victim to rapists and defilers.
“When our girls get pregnant, we often send them away from home. But please, don’t chase her away because where you send her, she risks multiple pregnancies. Someone may offer her accommodation and care but will expect something in return, which is usually sex,” Nyakato advises.
Since its inception in 2019, the program has supported over 100 teenage mothers in the districts of Kampala and Mbale.
To date, it has enabled 20 teenage mothers to return to school and provided training in tailoring to over 50 others. Nyakato notes that many of these mothers now have school-aged children, and the program is working to support these children’s education.
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