Mak girl empowers one girl at a time

In 2010, when Joan Nabatanzi joined the Girl Power Project as a 12-year girl, she identified an opportunity to change the community perceptions towards girls through building their self-esteem.
Within five years, her tenacity had paid off. In March of 2015, Nabatanzi was president of the Motivational Forum at Katikamu SDA Secondary School, which she helped found. She brought five girls to a Girl Power Project Camp, where they were empowered with leadership opportunities she had been exposed to. 

Girl Power Project is a transformational programme targeting adolescent girls in central Uganda, empowering them to make the right choices in life. The key areas of focus are education, economic independence, while advocating for delayed marriage. 

Life skills and mentorship
Through regular camps, they counsel and teach adolescent girls life skills and offer mentorship that equips girls to stay in school and avoid forced child marriage, early pregnancy and sexually transitted diseases. This is done through a multi-step programme that involves education, promoting self-esteem, self-acceptance, exercises and team building activities.

Nabatanzi has been an active participant in the camps, taking every opportunity she could, to practice her life skills while sharing her knowledge with other girls in her community.
The girls she brought on board had one thing in common; courage. They spoke up. They spoke out. They encouraged more girls to identify human rights violations and speak out against them. They spoke about the deadly pitfalls of poverty that come with sexual and gender-based violence, early pregnancy, child marriage – all at great personal cost.

“I used to be so shy. Now I can speak freely. I am assertive. I make sure that someone understands me whenever I am communicate. I learnt how to protect myself. I learnt that I should not be violated and my human rights should be respected,” Nabatanzi recounts her transformation journey.

Girl Now project
Ten years later, ahead of her 22nd birthday, Nabatanzi is the chief executive -call her team leader of Girl Now, a community-based organisation in Mukono District, that advances girls’ economic opportunities through encouraging girls to delay pregnancy, stay in school and learn skills to become financially independent. 
This programme which benefits children between 12-17 years is delivered through adolescent girl’s empowerment programmes that focuses on girls understanding their value and harnessing it to their maximum capability.

She has dedicated her life to teaching girls social and financial skills as well as fostering sisterhood, teamwork, innovation to eliminate what she calls harmful dependence. The traditional narrative of adolescent girls in Uganda is a familiar story. Uganda has the youngest population in the world, with 77 per cent of its people under 25 years. The choices that these young people make will affect the country’s future in decades to come.
According to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2006, more than 53 per cent) of women aged between 20–49 were married before the age of 18, the legal age of marriage for women in Uganda. 

Factors associated with early marriage, such as poverty, biases against girls’ education and limited education, are also linked with consequences later in life including gender-based violence. 
This is why keeping girls in school past the age of 14 is an area of concern. Community education and mass media programmes can serve as a link in creating awareness of the effects of early marriages, teenage pregnancy and promoting role models.

Born in the war-torn Luweero District and being raised by a single mother, Nabatanzi has witnessed firsthand how hard life can be for a girl in pursuit of their dreams.
“Whenever I go to the village and ask the whereabouts of girls I grew up with, the answer I get is that they are married. Most girls my age got married before realising their dreams. It is not what you would wish for them,” Nabatanzi says. This is where her story of empowerment starts.
 
Lonely journey
One of the most dramatic episodes in Nabatanzi’s story began five years ago during a girl camp. In 2016, Nabatanzi discussed with Kloey Battista, now the co-founder of the Girl Now Foundation, on what they can do for the girl-child. 
Battista had done a fundraiser for the Girl Power Project camp and raised Shs37m ($10,000). After the camp, they agreed to start Girl Now, which has become a towering memorial for girls in Mukono, Kayunga and Luweero Districts.

Battista made sure that the organisation gets the funding it requires while Nabatanzi did the honours of administration in Uganda. “There are not many friends that can support and work with you in life, but Battista believed in me. The journey is very uncertain and lonely. It only gets better if you take it with supportive colleagues,” Nabatanzi says.

Nabatanzi is a second year student at Makerere University pursuing a degree in Horticulture. Her initial career goals were to become a gynaecologist to support women during childbirth.In her final year of A-Level, she says, she travelled a lot and did not raise the cut off points needed to join the medical school.

Role models 
In the Girl Power Project, she and other girls have been trained to mentor other girls in their communities. It is a role she is passing on to the girls after more than 12 years of training.
Operations of Girl Now began during the first lockdown in 2020. Nabatanzi says she has directly trained 350 girls through the project curriculum.

In Uganda, the vast majority of 12-15 year old girls are enrolled in primary school, but once they reach puberty, nearly 50 per cent of them drop out of school by the age of 15. They start having  children before their bodies are fully developed, contributing to the health risks of teenage pregnancies, especially death.
Girl Now head offices in Mukono District at Kasenge ‘B’ village borders a forest, sugar cane plantations, a stone quarry and an industrial park, which expose girls to numerous challenges.

Big platforms 
Nabatanzi has taught many girls how to make sanitary pads using available materials. The alumna of the 2017 women in science girls STEAM camp in Malawi and the 2017 Pan African youth leadership programme, Nabatanzi has represented girls on many platforms, including the 2017 Africa Debate Competition and the 2017 Just Like My Child Foundation gala in Los Angeles.
“We shall change the world, one girl at a time,” she says.
At a glance
The girls she mentors have one thing in common- courage. They speak up. She encouraged more girls to identify human rights violations and speak out against them. They speak about the deadly pitfalls of poverty that come with sexual and gender-based violence, early pregnancy, child marriage and diseases.  The alumna of the 2017 women in science girls STEAM camp in Malawi and the 2017 Pan African youth leadership programme, Nabatanzi has represented girls on many platforms, including the 2017 Africa Debate Competition.