Several Ugandan teenage girls got pregnant during the COVID-19 lockdown and as a result of this, many of them dropped out of school. According to a 2021 report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the COVID-19 pandemic impacted all aspects of life in Uganda, resulting in school closures, loss of jobs, and disruptions in access to health and social services, although no group felt the effects of the pandemic more than adolescent girls! “The high rates of teenage pregnancy can be attributed to disruption to programs that support access to sexual reproductive health information and services to schoolgirls. Also, poverty led some parents to marry off their daughters to make money to survive,” Dr. Edson Muhwezi, the UNFPA Assistant Representative to Uganda says. He adds that “Analysis of data on first Antenatal Care visits from District Health Information System (DHIS-2) shows that there was a 17 percent spike in teenage pregnancies between March 2020 and June 2021.”
Although the government, through the Ministry of Education and Sports rolled out a program to rehabilitate these affected girls and urged school administrators to allow them to continue with their studies, many of them remained at home, especially because they could not fit well amongst their classmates. However, in a bid to salvage the situation, Diana Kibuuka, a US-based Ugandan nurse and social worker decided to give these teenage girls another opportunity to get educated through her Non-Governmental Organisation – ACTS-FUND (Action For Community Treatment Services). A mental health expert, Kibuuka realized that most of the teenage girls who had been impregnated during the COVID-19 lockdown were suffering from severe trauma, some had been infected with HIV, while others couldn’t cope with the responsibilities of studying and being young parents. Through her NGO, Diana decided to start up a program called Bright Star Girls Alliance, under which she has helped rehabilitate several young mothers and teenage victims of sexual violence. Equipped with a team of skilled trainers and mental health specialists, Diana started moving around different districts looking for teenage mothers, intending to rehabilitate and return them to school.
Her project started bearing fruits when in January this year she traveled to Kalangala District, where she helped to rehabilitate several teenage mothers, who thereafter returned to school to acquire skills that can enable them earn a living. It was not long before the government, through the Ministry of Education and Sport, acknowledged Kibuuka’s efforts and decided to join hands with her in a bid to give Ugandan teenage girls a new chance to life. Through the Ministry, the government agreed to support Kibuuka’s cause by undertaking to pay school fees for the girls that got rehabilitated through her Bright Star Girls Alliance. Addressing some affected students who are rehabilitated in Bright Star Girls Alliance under Action for Community Treatment Centre (ACTS) in Kalangala, George Mutekanga, the assistant Commissioner for Private Schools in the Ministry of Education and Sports, said the government is to support them in formal Education. “Students will be recruited in Ssese Agricultural Farm Institute in courses of their own choice and on their graduation, they will be given start-up capital,” Mutekanga said in January during an event to pass out some of the rehabilitated teenage girls.
He also urged Resident District Commissioners (RDCs)and security operatives in Kalangala to follow up on cases of defilers that had been reported by some parents. In the same vein, Apolo Mugume, the Kalangala RDC, appealed to parents not to hide impregnated teenagers and young mothers, as many parents in the island district were doing, noting that this would deny them opportunities to continue with their studies. Mugume assured parents that he would follow up on rehabilitated girls to ensure that they acquire skills in farming and other courses, which would enable them to have a better future. Kibuuka, who thanked the government for this timely intervention, said that Bright Star Girls Alliance has so far helped to rehabilitate over 25 girls from three sub-counties of Kalangala Town Council, Mugoye and Bujumba, who are all teenage mothers. She revealed that her dream is to rehabilitate, empower and educate all affected teenage girls, with the intent to renew their hope for education after childbirth. Kibuuka said; “The best way to achieve this is by rehabilitating them mentally and physically, giving them all the physical and psychosocial support they need, plus supporting them for further education until they complete their studies.”