David Mafabi
3 September 2008
While many a child would join the rest of African children in marking the day of the African child (June 6), Emily Nelima, although a child sat at home to look after another child; her baby.
And besides the general pervasive atmosphere, Nelima is also enduring the harsh realities of being defiled and turned into a mother at the age of 11.
"For a great part of this year, I have been thinking with futility to find out where I belong, to the children or adult mothers and whenever I think about this, I begin shedding tears especially when I see my friends and agemates going to school," says Nelima.
Nelima was impregnated at the age of 11 while in Primary Five. She was expelled from school (Musiye Primary School in Bumbo in Manafwa District), rejected by the person who impregnated her and banished by the parents, she only sought refugee at her helpless grandmother's home.
Ms Emily Nelima now 12 years, later gave birth to a healthy baby girl but could not afford to take care of the child as a single child mother.
Fortunately, African Rural Development Initiatives (Ardi), a local NGO which is determined to restore hope amongst child mothers in the area learnt of her plight through a Good Samaritan and came to her rescue. The NGO that runs a skills development centre for child mothers and other youths at Bumoni is situated in Manafwa District.
Nelima, is now certain of looking after her baby and later going to school.
The child mothers of whom there are about 551 under Ardi in Bumoni, Bumbo and Bubutu sub-counties - describe a similar inhuman treatment by the fathers of their children and their parents.
Ardi has given out a goat to every child mother as a source of milk for the baby as well as a means of generating income to look after their fatherless children. In fact most of the girls Daily Monitor visited have more than one goat from the original goat, others have bought cows and look forward to being self reliant.
Besides giving a goat to the child mothers, Ardi also re-kindles the child mothers' lost hope through counselling, guidance and life skills development which helps them develop self esteem, awareness, and become assertive enough to make informed choices and decisions; this has resulted into over 147 child mothers going back to different educational institutions.
According to the Executive director, Mr Joseph Weyusya, Ardi was initiated in 1999 to contribute to the wellbeing of the rural disadvantaged communities, a mission that has propelled it (Ardi) into the construction of a youth drop-in centre which has also become the new home for child mothers. The centre will be used purposely to have young people come together to learn and encourage each other positively.
Weyusya says that although Ardi is supporting 551 child mothers by engaging them into income generating activities, teaching them skills like tailoring, and helping them to go back to school, there are over 1,000 child mothers who remain helpless in many homes in Manafwa District and even more in Uganda as a whole.
Most of the staff at Ardi have been trained in counselling, and social guidance whose major role is to help the child mothers not to lose hope in life but to re-set their lost ambitions and fight on towards achieving them.
Nelima is determined to go back to school with the ambition of becoming a nurse.
"Good people from Ardi finally came to my help. I have gone through difficult life as a single mother, at times I have done without food and yet my child has to suckle besides the person I am staying with is very poor. Life is bad for me and I believe it is equally very bad for single child mothers. I mean why should my parents reject me as a child for being pregnant?"
Nelima also has a piece of advice for child mothers out there: "You will be expelled from school, rejected by your spouse and banished by parents but don't think about aborting like others have done and ended up losing their lives.
"There is life after delivery. You can still go back to school and make it," she says. Weyusya says although initially he wanted to help the orphans, needy children and street children who had dropped out of school, his objective changed when he discovered shortly after research that there are many child single mothers living in the communities helplessly.
"So I shifted my vision with a purpose to restore the hope destroyed in child mothers by giving them a hand in looking after their babies and yet sensitising them to go back to school or begin income generating activities to earn a living," said Weyusya.
A study conducted by Joanne Leerlooijer from the Netherlands revealed that many of the teenage girls in Manafwa are defiled, impregnated and/or forced into child mothers before they make 16 years.
Weyusya who presented the report at a ceremony organised by the NGO to handover goats to over 100 child mothers, says plans are under way to extend the programme to other sub-counties in the district.
He says the goat project was funded by the Netherlands researcher and a friend to the project, Leerlooijer.
Leerlooijer from Adopteer een Geit (adopt a goat) an NGO in Holland and friends, secured over Shs62m for Ardi activities which included construction of a youth centre, reproductive health and rights trainings, tailoring, and catering, purchase of goats among others.
Weyusya says the youth drop in centre would provide an avenue for in door and outdoor games and sports for child mothers and the entire youth folk in the area.
To date in Bumoni, Bumbo and Bubutu sub-counties child mothers know Leerlooijer who regularly visits them as their mother.
"This lady is a good Samaritan to us," remarks Esther Khainza, 15, another child mother who has enrolled back in school.
Ms Leerlooijer says whereas Ardi has started voluntary counselling and testing, home visits and care, treatment of STDs, special child counselling and free distribution of condoms to help curb down the spread of HIV/Aids and unwanted pregnancies amongst the children, they are also targeting counselling the parents on how to live with their children even after they are found pregnant.
Ardi also takes care of sexually active young people, and does not only preach the abstinence message but the ABC strategy (Abstinence, Be faithful and use a Condom) to fight HIV/Aids and that this has drawn commitment of the communities where Ardi works.
The chairperson parliamentary committee on gender, labour and social development, Ms Theopista Ssentongo who officiated at the goat giving ceremony to the child mothers blamed the increasing number of child mothers on lack of parental guidance for the girl-child.
Ms Ssentongo who is the Workers' MP said failure by parents to have time for their children and provide counsel to adolescent girls was responsible for the escalating cross generational sex, early marriages and bastards filling the streets.
"Apart from reports from here, there is generally an increasing number of child mothers in Uganda below the age of 16 years. This reflects irresponsibility on the side of the parents to have time to give guidance, counsel and provide all the necessary demands of girl-child at school," said Ssentongo.
She said the existence of 43 percent of child mothers in Manafwa District reflects that the teenage girls in the district are actively engaged in unprotected sex.
She urged parents to make timetables to give time to their children in order to save the generation of young girls who are having sex at a young age and so getting early unwanted pregnancies.
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