Retain Orphan Girl Children in Schools in Uganda

Summary 

Girl Children of 10 - 24 years in Uganda dropout of school due to failure to manage menstrual health hygiene and lack of support like adequate food and school items. As such engage in child marriage, prostitution and are exposed to HIV/AIDS. In Uganda, particularly in Budaka and Kibuku district dropout of orphaned girl children in schools is extremely high despite the existing Universal Primary and Secondary Education in Budaka and Kibuku district. Caregivers lack adequate capacity to provide necessary support like scholastic materials and other basic needs of girl children. The project establishes sustainable income generating projects to caregivers and trains Orphan Girl Children in Menstrual Health Hygiene practices. This is the January – March 2019 project quarterly report. The report captures the progress of the project for the quarter ending 31 March 2019 with financial support from GlobalGiving stakeholders and partners.

Current Status of the Project

The following were done in the last quarter:-

1. Mobilized and trained 30 Orphan Girl Children in Menstrual Health Hygiene practices.
2. Trained 30 Orphan Girl Children in making reusable sanitary pads.
3. Provided 30 Orphan Girl Children with materials for making reusable sanitary pads.

Challenges 

KADO is faced with limited funding to support Orphan Girl Children in Menstrual Health Hygiene practices and with materials for making reusable sanitary pads.

Recommendations

KADO recommends that funds be made available to organizations addressing issues Adolescents Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (ASRHR) to improve the literacy levels of girls to enable them become self-reliant and have sustainable livelihood.

Summary

Retention of orphan girl children project in Budaka, Pallisa and Kibuku districts in Eastern Uganda aims at empowering 80 widows in commercial vegetable growing to improve family nutrition and income to pay for school meals and scholastic material for 1450 school going orphan girl children between 8 – 18 years. The 80 widows have been empowered with modern knowledge and skills in vegetable growing and provided with vegetable seeds, pesticides and spray pumps and as sustainability means for the project. This is the September to November 2018 quarterly report and it is located on the GlobalGiving web page platform and our web page of www.kagumudevelopment.org. The report captures the progress of the project for the quarter ended 31 November 2018 with financial support from all stakeholders in the Globalgiving platform.
 

Current status 

The following was done in the quarter:

1. The project provided support to 30 widows and 30 orphan girl children in schools
2. 30 widows have gained skills and experience in less labour intensive agronomic practices e.g. kitchen gardening using organic manure to ensure that they obtain regular harvest and sales.
3. 30 widows have joined different village saving and loan associations (VSLA) and have opened up the kiosks/stalls in the trading centers, buying and selling from others for enhanced incomes has become common.

                                  
Challenges

1. The organization is faced with limited funding to support widows to undergo commercial vegetable production in order to maximize production and sustain the buyers demand.
2. Some widows lack land and therefore, the organization hire land for them and they practice collective production/farming.

Recommendation
The organization requests all development partners to extend their giving hand to the project to facilitate the implementation of this project in order to improve the social- economic empowerment of widow led households as this is the only viable project in terms of providing quick returns. Currently, in Uganda there is no specific programme to support widows yet they have a big Burden of the OVCs.

 Testimony from the beneficiary

This testimony is from Mucline the wife of the late Mugombesya of Kabweri Sub County in Kibuku district who died of electric shock and left her with 6 orphan girl children. Late Mugombesya was at the same time HIV/AIDS positive as he was taking ARVS from Kagumu Health Centre III. Mugombesya was a very hard working man and could support his family effectively. However, he didn’t empower Mucline to engage in economic activities for income generation and be able to stand to support the family in case of the demise of death unto him.

After the death of Mugombesya, Mucline had nothing at hand to act as the source of income to support the family and had zeroed down to selling the land that was small and would be used for agriculture to solve domestic needs like procurement of essential commodities and payment of medical bills for the family members.

The organization identified Mucline, empowered her in vegetable growing using her land and she is able to grow variety of vegetables, sells and access some income to support her family. She is among the women who joined village saving and loan associations and is happily living with HIV/AIDS that claimed the life of her late husband.

This is a true story and explains how this project works in respect to supporting the retention of the orphan girl children in schools in Uganda.