Young Mothers’ Education and Research Initiative Pledge

Uganda presents the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2013, out of the 1.2 million pregnancies recorded annually in Uganda, approximately 25% of these are teenage pregnancies - 57% of mothers gave birth before the age of 16 and 22% before the age of 14.

This is approximately 66,000 girls under the age of 14 giving birth every year.

These girls are children having children...

THE CAUSES

Early pregnancy is a significant concern and strongly linked to violence against girls in the form of rape, sexual assault, defilement and incest, among other causes. 

This happens on a daily basis within their household, school and community, where protective mechanisms are very poor. 

THE CONSEQUENCES

Girls as young as 12 years old are refused schooling as a result of early pregnancy. They find themselves with little opportunity to re-enter schooling because of their new situation as young mothers and because of strong stigmas surrounding pre-marital sexual relations within schools, families and communities.

The stigmas have strong implications: they are refused assistance and are marginalised; married against their will to the father of their child (even if pregnancy was the result of forced or coerced sex) or to another man to avoid dishonour; or forced to go through illegal and unsafe abortion. 

In addition, early pregnancy is life-threatening for both the mother and the child. 

OUR PROJECT

If we don't ACT, we will witness continuing and increasing intergenerational incidences of early pregnancy and violence againt girls in Uganda.

Teenage pregnancy interventions, particularly in the central part of Uganda, are scarce. Therefore, Emerge For Africa Ltd is focusing all its efforts on assisting these young mothers and babies. 

Our project, YOUNG MOTHERS' EDUCATION AND RESEARCH INITIATIVE, targets young mothers aged 12 to 16 years old whose school careers are cut short as a result of early pregnancy precipitated by violence against girls (VAG). 

While the project primarily assist them re-enter formal schooling or gain vocational and professional training through non-formal education with the aim to facilitate their reintegration and improve their socio-economic opportunities, we also deliver awareness and change programmes with the aim to improve young mothers’ capacity to become mentors and strong advocates in the prevention of early pregnancy and violence against girls within local schools and communities. 

300 young mothers and 300 young babies will benefit directly from our project, as well as girls from 40 primary schools and 28 secondary schools in the Wakiso district, with the potential to scale up to the 249 government primary schools currently in the district.

Not only, we offer them a safe and hygienic environment, but also the opportunity to change their life - a shift from MARGINALISED to PEERS EDUCATORS, MENTORS AND ENTREPRENEURS! 

WHY THIS PLEDGE

We are currently building the centre that will welcome these young mothers and babies, and need your support to complete it by the end of Summer 2015, for the project to start by January 2016. 

We have included as many photos as we can in order to convey our message and show what we are achieving in the most informative way possible.

Nonetheless, if you wish to find out more about us and our project, we invite you to visit our website on www.emergeforafrica.org.

We thank you in advance for your generous contribution!

(Note: donations are deductible from the total profits of your business. You just need to contact us at [email protected]) 

Emerge For Africa's Team