Janet decries early marriages, teenage pregnancies in Uganda 

The First Lady and Minister of Education, Ms Janet Museveni has raised concern about the growing numbers of early marriages that are contributing to teenage pregnancies.

In her speech delivered by Lands Minister, Ms Judith Nabakooba, Ms Museveni lauded the management of Lutamaguzi Memorial High School for celebrating the girl child, expressing the hidden opportunities of recognising girls in the community, including creating awareness about the importance of education in shaping and advancing the future of girls in our nation.

“Thousands of girls in societies all over the world face gender discrimination just for being born a daughter and not a son,” she noted, revealing that, in Uganda, at least 35 percent of girls drop out of school because of early marriage.

This was during an event to commemorate and empower the girl child at Lutamaguzi Memorial High School in Wattuba Town Council, Kyankwanzi District on Friday .
Ms Museveni said girl education is less valued because they (girls) are the first option for providing domestic help in homes, gardens as well as taking care of patients and the elderly.

Ms Museveni   shared that her Ministry conducted a study in 2015 to establish a linkage between teenage pregnancy and school dropout and it realised 22.3 percent of the school dropouts in Uganda are due to pregnancy among girls aged between 14 to 18 years.
“In Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, we recorded 358,000 teenage pregnancies, many of which, occurred in homes where we would ordinarily expect children to be protected and shielded from the sexual abuse.”she said.

The First Lady’ s message comes amidst efforts by the government to skill the girl child through the 22 skilling centres located in different regions across the country..
The minister also called upon the different stakeholders not to over-focus on girls only, but also care about the life of the boy child as well to create gender equity.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of boys who have a low esteem and have turned to violent lifestyles because their needs and concerns are undermined by society.” she explained 
Lutamaguzi Memorial High School partnered with Harambee Cooperative Group, an association that brings together children of the National Resistance Army (NRA) soldiers.
In response to the day’s theme of empowering a girl child, Harambee organised a run that was attended by learners from different schools.

 “As children of the fighters, we have joined this initiative to sensitise for a girl child’s education because we realised our daughters do not go far in studies,” Ms Juliet Kazini, the chief executive officer of Harambee noted.
Ms Nabakooba handed over a Shs10 million contribution to the chief organiser of the event on behalf of the First Lady in appreciation. In return, the organisers also gifted the first lady a cow.