Push Community Initiative participated in the International Women's Day Celebrations held in Mbale District on
12th April,2023 at Jewa Town Council Headquarters.
Under the theme,embracing equity, PCI adolescent girls and young women made presentations using puppet theatre
and exhibition of their work on making reusable sanitary pads and tailoring.
Kabuya Mariam, female, aged 23 years , dropped out of school in senior four due to life challenges. She is a young mother of 01 and comes from Jewa Lower cell in Jewa Town Council, Mbale District. Mariam is the last born among the 14 children of mzee Nabudo Yahaya Masaba of Jewa Parish,in Mbale.
Intervention:
In 2020,PCI received funding from the RightsNowFoundation to implement the Skills for Education(S4E) project in Mbale to empower vulnerable girls with sustainable income generating skills. Mariam is one of the over 200 adolescent girls and young women(AGYW) who benefited from the PCI skills for education (S4E) project funded by the RightsNow Foundation in 2020.
Asked how she learned about [PCI ] and how she got involved in the S4E project, Mariam says” I learnt about PCI through a friend. My friend told me that PCI had enrolled girls during the COVID-19 lock down and was training them in skills like making sanitary pads and tailoring. I asked her whether the project was free of charge and whether I could also join. She told me the project was free and PCI was enrolling vulnerable girls like me. The following day I joined and started learning how to make handmade reusable sanitary pads. After 2 days I tried the sewing machine and I felt good. This made me to love the project and continue participating’. Mariam under went a six months hands on artisan training on tailoring and she graduated in 2021. She now operates her business from Busia( Kayola yard) and earns on average UGX 36,000= ( USD 10) per day.
About the changes that Mariam has experienced as a result of participating in PCI projects /trainings:
Mariam is happy to express: “ There are very many changes. First I no longer have time to waste. Every day I wake up, I know what I have to do. I am self-employed. I can survive as an individual because I am working and I do not depend on any one for survival as it was before. Secondly, I was shy and timid. My self- esteem was low but now I can confidently address up to five people without fear. People no longer despise me, because I work, I hope to have even a better future”, She expressed with smiles.
Mariam describes the changes that she has seen and heard of in her community as a result of PCI and RightsNow Foundation project as follows: “ I see children and girls engaged in tailoring training which occupy them during school holidays and weekends. When holidays come, they go to PCI skills center to attend training in tailoring and making reusable sanitary pads. I see many girls and young women admire me and they want to be like me. I have seen AGYW have gained confidence. Girls no longer engage in bad behavior like asking boys for money to buy sanitary pads. I have seen some girls who get old clothes, go to PCI skills center and make their own pads. This has reduced early pregnancy.”
Mariam’s message to other girls who could be suffering is that:
They (girls) should know that they can also manage and succeed like me. “First, they(AGYW) should believe in themselves. Say , I am Mariam and I can do it. Be confident. They should have hope because situations change. I never knew I could join an organization like PCI, get skills and become independent. The AGYW should know that a skill is permanent and can give you a job all the time. They should be engaged, go to PCI and gain skills. Girls planning to get married should know that if you get married with a skill in your head, you can make a better wife and mother”, summarized Mariam. Mariam is grateful to the RightsNow Foundation and all PCI development partners including PEPFAR and PACE for supporting adolescent girls and young women in Uganda.
HIV/AIDS services for adolescent girls and young women are still limited, menstrual hygiene needs for adolescent girls and young women are ignored, poverty is still biting and vulnerable families cannot fend for the members in their households and negative coping mechanisms like Child survival sex ,drug abuse and domestic violence are on the increase in the program areas. Adolescent girls and young women are at a big risk of absorbing the negative effects of child abuse, HIV/AIDS ,gender-based violence and household poverty due to their high vulnerability. In the program area , adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) find themselves with “sugar daddies” and other intimate partners who lure them into unprotected sex in exchange for small gifts including food, and sanitary pads thus exposing them to HIV/AIDS and lifelong problems like unwanted children.
The Global COVID-19 pandemic has left many households socially and economically devastated. Push Community Initiative has however provided some hope to rural women in Bufumbo Sub-county in Mbale through tailoring skills. We call upon stakeholders to support us reach more vulnerable women in the rural community of Uganda because they are not only mothers of the nation but the first line of response to family challenges.
Kainza Jane 52 years is a mother of 9 children who has lived with chronic illness for 12 years now. Jane has high blood pressure,stroke and painful ulcers.For over 12 years now Jane has not found treatment for her sickness not even support equipment like wheel chair to enable her move out of her room. Her daughters have to take care of her including bathing and supporting her to turn in bed.Her children dropped out of school, relatives, neighbours and friends have deserted her.Jane needs a wheel chair, treatment and basic needs. She wants to see her children go back to school.
Children in many parts of rural Uganda are engaged in child labour due to closure of schools. In Bukabalenda village Kitagulu Ward in Bufumbo Subcounty,Mbale District i found many children engaged in sugar cane cutting as early as 8amwhereas their counterparts in towns attend classes on TV and Radio at such a time.
