Plight of 14-year-old pregnant girl

What you need to know:

  • When Stella Buriza* dropped out of school three years ago, the last thing she thought about was being a mother. But fate had other plans, as the teenager is not only pregnant, but also homeless.

It is lunchtime at Entebbe Police Station and Stella Buriza, a resident of the station, partakes of the same meal of posho, beef, and greens, as the officers. A closer look at her and one can notice the telltale signs of early pregnancy.

When Buriza dropped out of school in 2014, she did not envision the kind of life she is leading now. The 14-year-old girl was living in Lukindu, Mayuge District with her elderly aunt.

“I do not know my parents,” she says almost inaudibly, continuing, “my mother abandoned me when I was one month old. Ssenga (aunt) told me I was mistreated by my stepmother so she felt she had to take me to her home.”
By the time she reached Primary Four, Buriza’s aunt had become too old to fend for the family.

“In January, a woman came to the village, from Kampala, looking for a housemaid. We did not know her but when she came to our home, Ssenga told me to follow her.”

The woman, whose name Buriza does not know, swore she had only one young child. However, when they reached her home in Kinawataka, a Kampala suburb, the girl discovered there were six children to look after.
Despite government’s provision of Universal Primary Education (UPE), many rural girls of school going age, leave their villages to go to urban centres to work – mostly as housemaids.

Many times, though, they are picked up from their homes by older women who are well aware that the girls should be in school.
Caroline Jami, the programme officer Uganda Child Right NGO Network, says work that keeps a girl child away from their education negatively impacts on their future.

“This is infringing on their basic human rights. A girl who begins working as a maid at a young age will definitely remain in that position for the next few years. By the time she comes of age, all she can do is clean and cook. She is then condemned to a life of poverty, which usually begins with early
marriage.”

Forced to escape
Buriza worked for a month in her boss’ home before she was loaned to a nearby makeshift restaurant. She was permitted to continue living in the home.
“I cleaned the restaurant, peeled food, scrubbed big saucepans and did other petty jobs. I was told my salary was Shs50,000 a month, but I never received a coin. Instead, the money was given to the woman who picked me from the village.”

While Buriza was mistreated and abused by the restaurant owner, she was told she was too young to handle her salary. They promised to give her the money when she grew older. By June, the girl had had enough.
“I decided to walk to Soroti to look for my mother. I did not have a coin in my pocket but I was desperate. I did not know the way. I just started walking and found myself on Entebbe Road. I walked for three days, sleeping wherever darkness found me.”

The vulnerability of the girl child
There are unshed tears in Buriza’s eyes. On one of those nights, a group of men who took advantage of her and defiled her.

“It was raining heavily as I approached the airport. A woman roasting maize by the roadside gave me shelter, and later brought me to the station.”
Buriza sleeps on old boxes and in an alcove off the corridor of Entebbe police station. However, she is not the only girl who has found herself at the station.

ASP Henry Turyasingura, the second-in-charge at the Child Protection and Family Unit (CPFU) of Entebbe Police Station, says once, a Nigerian girl walked from Soroti to Entebbe.

“She was escaping the cruelty of her guardians. We handed her back to the police in Soroti and they helped to mediate the differences between the girl and her people. We always work with the probation officer to try and return these children to their parents.

Although John Omel, the Entebbe probation officer, is aware of Buriza’s situation, in a text message, he declined to comment on this story. Technically, all abandoned children at the police station are supposed to be under the care of the probation office, but this is not the case.

Whose responsibility are abused children?

According to Turyasingura, a report was made and sent to the district probation office but there has been no reply to date. Recently, the police officer contacted an NGO to ask them to accommodate Buriza so that she can safely deliver her baby.

“I normally send these girls to Retrak which can take care of them and counsel them to get over their trauma. I am waiting for a reply from them.”
Retrak, whose slogan is No child forced to live on the streets, reaches out to street children and supports them as they reintegrate back into their families and communities.

To keep busy, every other day, Buriza helps out a woman living nearby do housework.
“She is a policeman’s wife and she treats me well. I hope the DPC allows me to stay with her. I do not want to return to Mayuge.”

The law
Uganda has a considerable number of policies designed to protect young females from getting pregnant during adolescence, including the National Health Policy, the National Adolescents Health policy, the sexual reproductive health minimum package, the minimum age of sexual consent policy, and the defilement law among others. These policies have not been implemented, leaving loopholes that are being exploited, against the teenage girl.

Numbers
300,000

The number of teenagers who get pregnant every year in Uganda

*Name of victim has been changed to protect her identity