Child marriages rampant in Pader

Pader: Evelyn (not real name) was forced to marry at the age of 14 and gave birth at 15. Finally, she dropped out of school in 2012. She had been a Primary Seven pupil.
“Every day, the man at Small World Trading Centre in Pader Town Council would buy my father alcohol. One day, my father took me to the man’s shop and abandoned me there. I was raped and later impregnated,” says Evelyn.

Today, the 20-year-old is among dozens of breastfeeding child mothers studying at Pader Girls’ Academy. During class hours, the young mothers take their babies to the nearby day care centre where the children are cared for by the caregivers.
The prevalence of child marriage and teenage pregnancy is relatively high in Pader, just like other districts in northern Uganda.

Apac District speaker Emmanuel Okello Ecun acknowledges that his daughter is a victim.
“Somebody just impregnated my daughter in Senior Two. The school learnt of it two weeks ago and I was called to go and pick her from Mukono; I have been counselling her at home,” he says.
The Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2016 showed that teenage pregnancy rate in northern Uganda was at 145 per 1000 girls.

The survey summarised that about 61 per cent of Ugandan children below the age of 18 years had been married or were living in some form of union.
In Lira District, more than 1,170 teenage girls were impregnated in a span of three months in 2015, according to official data.

Figures from the district bio-statistician showed that during the third quarter of the 2015/2016 financial year, 132 adolescent pregnancies were recorded in Adekokwok Sub-county.
At least 215 teenage pregnancies were registered in Adyel Division, while 110 and 136 were recorded in Aromo Sub-county and Ojwina Division respectively.

In Pader, data from Health Information System 2017 shows that 1,794 children were impregnated, out of 103,175 children aged between 1 and 17. The report shows that 240 girls were impregnated from Pajule Sub-county followed by Puranga Sub-county (239 girls).

Plan Uganda attributes this worrying trend to the impact of the 20-year conflict with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) which has rocked the region. The organisation says the war has continuously made so many families dysfunctional.

Mr Patrick Adupa, the national programme manager in charge child protection says because of such issues, they came up with a response programme to run from 2018 to 2021 with support from government of Finland.
The project to be implemented by the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development targets 470,000 children, both boys and girls aged between 10 and 19 in Lira, Alebtong, Apac, Kole, Pader and Agago districts.

The ministry will be working closely with five other development partners in the implementation of the four-year project.
“We also want to bring in our understanding of gender so that parents can improve relationship between men and women because sometimes domestic violence – because of poor understanding the role of men and women, boys and girls – has also contributed to child marriage,” he says.

However, to achieve this, Ms Eeva Ervamaa, the Plan International head of programme cautions: “In order to achieve that, we can leave no one behind. We need each individual to be able to contribute and participate fully in the society.”

Mr Mondo Kyateka, the commissioner of Youth and Children Affairs in the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development, agreed that some action must be taken to address the plight of adolescents.
“It takes a commitment and it takes all of us to fight this vice. We must leave a mark, we must leave the country better than we found it; we cannot continue being around as leaders …. We need to repent that we have let down the community in which we live,” the commissioner said.

Launching the project at Christian Counseling Fellowship, Pader Town, on Thursday (April 26), Mr Rashid Javed, country director of Plan Uganda, said: “We have let you down as adults. We have let you down as children, there are things we ought to have done, that we have not done and the truth is not enough. We will not fail you.”

Mr Kyateka added: “The most important thing is not what we did or didn’t do yesterday; what is important is what we draw from lessons of yesterday and plan to do better tomorrow.”
Critics said the most critical issues to look out for in the project would be retention of adolescent girls in schools, teenage pregnancies, early child marriages and menstrual hygiene management.

“Let us focus our energy on addressing challenges faced by adolescent girls in Uganda, and I pledge that we shall support programmes which will work towards ensuring retention of adolescent girls in schools,” Ms Joy Atim Ongom, Lira District Woman MP, said.

The laws: It is important to note that in the 9th Parliament, several laws and policies which support children were passed, among which is the Children Act, Public Finance Management Act: with the provision on gender and equity certificate for all sector policies and budget.

Other support. The 10th Parliament continues to support girls through distribution of reusable sanitary towels for girls in some rural schools; raising critical issues which affect the girls on the floor of Parliament; pushing for gender laws and policies which support the girl child.

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