Manafwa girls leave school to look after babies

Namuwenge (not real name) was in Primary Six at Bumoni Primary School in Manafwa District when she got sexually involved with a fellow pupil, now in Primary Seven. “For most of this year, I have been trying to figure out whether I am a child or adult mother and whenever I think about this, I begin crying, especially when I see my friends and agemates going to school,” she says.

The child mother says she was impregnated at the age of 12, expelled from school, rejected by her boyfriend, banished by her parents and only sought refuge at her grandmother’s place. Her grandmother’s tale is, however, not any different – it is a hard life. The old woman earns a living through doing casual jobs such as digging in other people’s gardens and looking after goats.

Not alone
Namuhenge’s life story may be depressing, but she is not alone. The 13-year-old is one of the many child mothers in Manafwa District who are benefiting from the African Rural Development Initiatives (ARDI), a local NGO that identifies and looks after child mothers.

There are about 712 child mothers under ARDI in Bumoni, Bumbo and Bubutu sub-counties whose stories seem to share a script. Cases of young girls dropping out of school in the district due to teenage pregnancy are rampant. According to Dr Gideon Wamasebu, the district health officer, about 43 per cent of girls in the district aged between 13 and 16 are already mothers. “This is way too high compared to the national figure of 25 per cent, according the Health ministry,” Dr Wamasebu says.

Mr Henry Nalyanya, the Resident District Commissioner, attributes the high rate of teenage pregnancies to abject poverty. “People are poor and cannot afford to meet the needs of their children. As a result, the girls are lured into sex in exchange for gifts and money. This is worse at the border town of Lwakhakha, where many girls have gone into prostitution,” Mr Nalyanya says.

He explains that once the girls get pregnant, they drop out of school completely.
Fr Paul Buyera, who oversees Shikuyu Primary School, says many children study on empty stomachs because their parents cannot afford to pack lunch for them or pay for it at school.

This, he says, has lured many girls into sex with traders and boda boda cyclists, who buy them chapattis and sodas for lunch. Ms Betty Namarome, a deputy head teacher at Bubulo Girls High School, adds that poverty is the biggest cause of teenage pregnancies and early marriages. “Here girls are regarded as a source of wealth. When a man defiles or impregnates a school girl, parents do not report to the police. They instead opt to quietly meet the man and negotiate payment, usually between Shs200,000 and Shs400,000,” Mr Peter Kakala, a teacher at Buweswa Primary School, says.

Mr Eldad Mudangi, the senior education officer, blames the high rate of teenage pregnancies on the tendency by parents not to value girl education. “In Manafwa, once a girl gets pregnant, this marks the end of her education. She drops out and at times he is banished by the parents. Parents do not consider taking their daughters back to school after they have given birth,” Mr Mudangi explains. He adds: “Some prefer keeping girls at home to work in gardens. They also send them to sell produce in the markets and on their way back in the evening, the girls are intercepted by men and defiled.”

Through ARDI, Ms Joanne Leerlooijer, from Adopteer een Geit [adopt a goat], an NGO in Holland, have secured more than Shs62 million as part of the interventions to save the girl-child. Among activities so far accomplished included construction of a youth centre, reproductive health and rights trainings, tailoring, catering and the purchase of goats.

Mr Weyusya says several youth have dropped by at the centre for sessions in counselling and guidance, life skills, and reproductive health.

The centre also provides an avenue for indoor and outdoor games for the child mothers and youth in the district. He notes that ARDI has also started voluntary counselling and testing, home visits and care, treatment of STDs, special child counselling and free distribution of condoms to help curb the spread of HIV/Aids and unwanted pregnancies.

The organisation’s target is to also include counselling for parents on how to live with their children even after they have fallen prey to unwanted pregnancies.

Teenage pregnancies on the rise

Early marriage, early initiation of sex and lack of information, are said to be the leading drivers of adolescent pregnancy. According to Dr Wilfred Ochan, the Assistant Country Representative United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), lack of access to reproductive health information supported with services, has led teenagers into early sex while poverty and cultural practices continue to force girls into early marriages.”

There also seems to be a distinctive link between poverty and early pregnancies as data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics shows that adolescents from poor families are more likely to get pregnant. The pregnancy rate for adolescents from these families stands at 41 per cent while for adolescents from wealthier families is 17 per cent.

Acccording to the Uganda Demographic Health survey 2011, about 14 per cent of young women and 16 per cent of young men had their first sexual encounter before the age of 15 while 57 per cent of young women had their first encounter before the age of 18.
Although there is a National Adolescent Policy, which states that pregnant adolescent girls should be readmitted to school after they have delivered, the policy remains unsupported by the country’s Education Policy.

Most schools have also chosen to ignore it, a thing that has seen many unfortunate school girls give up school after delivery.

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