Uganda: Girls See Dreams of Education Dashed By Teenage Pregnancies; also victims of HIV-infections

mao dancing

Norbert  Mao (in coat) joins dwola dancers from Gulu Army SS in entertaining guests during a gala.

“We saw how her grandmother was struggling to pay fees and we decided to invite her, together with other students facing similar difficulties, to come to school during the holiday to make some bricks to earn money to supplement their parents. The school is putting up a hostel to accommodate students who come from afar”.

“Uganda registers 230 HIV infections a day. Despite widely available anti-retroviral therapy, 76 people die of AIDS-related causes every single day”

GULU/LAMWO-Uganda:Nineteen-year-old Ms. Scovia Abalango is a senior three student of Palabek Secondary School in Lamwo district, some 472 kilometers (about 298 miles) north of the Ugandan capital City of Kampala.

She is an orphan who never saw her father, Richard Okot Atungul. He committed suicide while living in so-called protected village, later renamed Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, but in truth concentration camps, at Palabek Kal when Abalango was still in the womb.

Her mother left her under the care of her sickly and elderly mother-in-law, Ms. Leonora Lalar Otika after weaning her; and has since remarried another man. Ms. Leonora made sure she sent her first grandchild, Scovia, to school, although with difficulties.

When I visited their home in December 2017, I found that Scovia was not enjoying her holidays as other children were. She had to go to school every day to work for her school fees for the new term.

“We saw how her grandmother was struggling to pay fees and we decided to invite her, together with other students facing similar difficulties, to come to school during the holiday to make some bricks to earn money to help their parents. The school is putting up a hostel to accommodate students who come from afar”, says Deputy Headmaster of Palabek SS, Mr. Peter Olaa.

“Although I want to study hard and become a medical worker in the future, I intend to branch off to a medical training institute after senior four since there is nobody to support my grandmother in paying for my higher education in a better school outside my district”, says Scovia.

The story of Ms. Scovia is not different from that of many others, including Ms. Innocent Aloyo who had to drop out in 2017 from Lukome Secondary School in Gulu district because of lack of school fees. She only returned to resume studies in 2018 after a team from a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Wizarts Foundation, visited her at her home and convinced her to come back and at least complete a cycle of studies.

There are many factors that force women and girls in Uganda and to drop out of schools. According to the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Sports, dropout rate is highest at the primary level than at the secondary level.

There are so many reasons for this, including; lack of interest, pregnancy, early marriages, hidden costs at school and family responsibilities.

According to a UNICEF 2015 report, 35% of girls drop out of school in Uganda because of early marriages and 23% because of early pregnancies.

Teenage pregnancy rate is 24% with regional variations; 34% in the poorest households but only 16% in the wealthier households. In rural areas 24% of the teenage girls get pregnant while the percentage for urban girls stands at 21% .

According to United Nation press release dated February 23, 2017, young people, especially girls aged between 15 and 24 are disproportionately affected by HIV infection.

Every hour, two young women are getting infected with HIV in Uganda. The prevalence of HIV among adolescent girls stand at 9.1 % compared to the national prevalence rate of 7.3%.

“Uganda registers 230 HIV infections a day. Despite widely available anti-retroviral therapy, 76 people die of AIDS-related causes every single day”, reads part of the UN press release to the UNAIDS Global Review Panel Mission to Uganda.

It is with this grim picture in mind that Wizarts Foundation, with support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for Aids (PEPFAR), embarked on the implementation of a two-year program called “Super Woman”.

“Super Woman-The woman I want to be” aims at keeping girls in secondary schools as a strategy for reducing new HIV infections among adolescent girls. The project is being implemented in the two districts of Gomba (in central Uganda) and Gulu (in the northern part of Uganda) in a total of 10 schools.

In Gulu, beneficiary schools are Paicho Secondary School, Lukome Secondary School, Awach Secondary School, Gulu Secondary School and Gulu Army Secondary School.

“We started this program in December 2016 with the view of keeping girls in school. We believe that when a girl stays in school, the rate of getting HIV is reduced until after university or other tertiary institutions. So far, a total of 1310 girls have benefitted from the program”, says Ms. Jennifer Akello, the program officer in the Gulu office.

On Friday March 9, 2018, the Wizarts Foundation organized a gala to recognize the girls from participating secondary schools that have distinguished themselves in the production of the Superwoman Radio Show during which there were performance of traditional dances and drama.

Speaking as guest of honor during the gala, Mr. Norbert Mao, the leader of the Democratic Party, says girls should not be denied opportunities simply because they have wombs, but instead concentrate in education.

“Having a womb does not mean you should be denied opportunities. This is a fight I encourage you to fight on. I want you to realize that education is the key to everything. The past is not equal to the future. You can still save your future”, says Mao.

 

 

Anyone wishing to help any of the girls mentioned in this story with school fees can get in touch with the author via [email protected]

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