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Girls and Women Lead in Wakiso

A girl presents to her class at St. Raphael School in Wakiso, Uganda

May 19, 2023

By Jacqueline Tucci

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Featured in the 2023 World of Gifts

You can support ARUWE, a long-standing partner of PWRDF, with two different initiatives in this year’s World of Gifts gift guide! ARUWE has designed a 10-day course to train women to make and sell briquettes as a low-cost cooking fuel alternative that is more environmentally sustainable than charcoal. In Uganda, slow growing trees are often cut down to produce charcoal for cooking fuel. Briquettes are made from crop reside. They provide families with a low-cost cooking fuel, while income from the sale of briquettes gives survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) the financial autonomy and self-esteem to regain control of their lives. With the match, your gift of $45 provides two days of training for one survivor of SGBV, to master the skills of making and selling of briquettes.They provide families with a low-cost cooking fuel, while income from the sale of briquettes gives survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) the financial autonomy and self-esteem to regain control of their lives. With the match, your gift of $45 provides two days of training for one survivor of SGBV, to master the skills of making and selling of briquettes.

ARUWE is also training women to become bakers. Financial security and autonomy are key steps in recovering from sexual and gender-based violence, and baking skills are in-demand. Through World of Gifts, your gift of $210 provides a survivor of sexual and gender-based violence with three months training to become a baker. With the match, two women can be trained!

Wakiso is a district in central Uganda where children under the age of 18 years old make up 53% of the population. Since 2018, PWRDF has partnered with Action for Rural Women’s Empowerment (ARUWE) on projects to empower young women and adolescents in the region. PWRDF and ARUWE have completed four successful projects to date, tackling teenage pregnancies, early marriages, incidents of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and HIV & STI infections amongst female adolescents, young women and teenage mothers.

PWRDF’s latest partner project with ARUWE – which began a new phase this month that will run for three years until April 2026 – aims to reduce rates of teenage pregnancy in Wakiso through education, training and increased access to SRHR services. This is the third phase in the successful Girls and Women Lead project.

In Wakiso, COVID-19-related school closures have left upwards of 15 million learners out of school. Leaving school early can trap people in a cycle of poverty through their lives, but it also limits their access to essential services, including those related to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Teenage pregnancy is a major contributing factor in girls leaving school early and never returning, and between March 2020 and June 2021, rates of pregnancy amongst women and girls aged 10-24 in Wakiso increased by 22.5%.

PWRDF is supporting this new project phase with a total $210,000 to build on the success of previous ARUWE projects.

In 2021, ARUWE implemented the second phase of Girls and Women Lead. Nabakooza Teddy is a community caseworker living in Naluvule parish, Wakiso district. She is a member of the Wakiso Gender-Based Violence Coalition which was established by ARUWE during the implementation of the project last year.

Nabakooza Teddy

When Teddy was approached to become a caseworker, she felt that she lacked the necessary skills for the role but accepted out of a passion for helping people.

“I faced a lot of challenges because there are times when I would receive cases that I didn’t know how to resolve. I didn’t know which people or offices I could reach out to for support,” Teddy said.

“While under the GBV coalition, I received capacity-building training on case management, psychosocial support, documentation, referral, and networking.”

Teddy and her counterparts also received training and gained more knowledge on how to effectively prevent and respond to teenage pregnancies, early marriages and gender-based violence.

As part of the same project, which ran from 2021 to 2022, ARUWE provided sexual education to female students at St. Raphael Senior Secondary School, a mixed day and boarding school in Wakiso. Many students at the school come from families experiencing poverty and are often faced with the decision to either abandon their studies or find somebody who can afford to fund their tuition. Many resort to seeking out men who may pay their tuition in exchange for sexual favours.

Nalwanga Shadia

“We are very troubled as a school to have incidences of students getting pregnant while still young and carrying out abortions. Recently one of the students who had carried out [an] unsafe abortion with the aid of a traditional birth attendant was admitted to the hospital as she was bleeding excessively,” said St. Raphael’s head teacher.

In response to incidents like this, ARUWE intervened with an education and empowerment program at the school. Students were equipped with knowledge and skills on the reproductive system, puberty, body image and sexuality, sexuality and relationships, assertiveness and self-esteem, coping with emotion, effective communication, problem-solving skills, resisting peer pressure and critical thinking skills. Students were also educated about the dangers, effects and prevention measures of teenage pregnancies.

“We are very grateful to ARUWE for the sexuality training they offered to us because it equipped us with skills of being assertive, resisting peer pressure and prioritizing our education,” said St. Raphael Head Girl, Nalwanga Shadia.

ARUWE is a non-profit NGO working with marginalized people, especially women and children, in rural Uganda. Their work focuses on adolescent SRHR, reducing gender-based violence and preventing teenage pregnancies.