Return to school initiative funded by Hilden Charity Trust Foundation
Lack of life skills and sexual reproductive health and rights information makes many adolescent girls susceptible to risky sexual practices.
Slum Aid Project (SAP) is a development, women, child care and advocacy NGO working with communities to improve the lives of the poor and vulnerable people living in the slums.
SAP is implementing an initiative in Katanga slums to support 30 teenage mothers to return to school and complete their Primary Level Education and attain a Primary Leaving Examinations Certificate.
The project, funded by Hilden Charity Trust Foundation, aimed at addressing the challenges faced by teenage mothers in accessing education including stigma, lack of support and inadequate resources has so far enrolled 30 girls in school, with the youngest girl being 14 years old.
The objective of Hilden Charity Trust Foundation is to mobilise teen mothers to return to school and provide them with scholastic materials.
Statistics indicate that in Uganda, one in four girls aged 15-19 years has had a child or is pregnant. The 2022 Uganda Health Demographic Survey (UHDS,2022) indicated that teenage pregnancy stagnated at 24 percent, but increased from 19 percent to 21 percent in urban areas.
The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural organization (UNESCO) report indicated that Uganda has the highest school dropout rate (70 percent) in East Africa, followed by Kenya then Tanzania.
According to KCCA from the financial years 2022/2022 to 2023/2024, a total of 226,357 mothers accessed antenatal services at their first visit at the government health facilities in Kampala. Of these, 23,789 were teenage mothers.
In the last three, years Kawaala Health Centre registered about 4,271 teenage pregnancies, while Kisenyi Health had 4,833.