Mayuge teen mothers till sugarcane farms to survive

Single teen mothers in Mayuge District are working as casual labourers in sugarcane plantations to earn a living.

The majority have taken on jobs widely seen as a preserve for men including as transporters, cutters, loaders and lifters

Mayuge is among the 11 districts in Busoga sub-region where sugarcane growing is thriving at both commercial and subsistence levels.

The sub-region boasts of vast sugarcane millers, including Kakira Sugar Limited in Jinja, Kaliro Sugar Company, Mayuge Sugar Industries Limited, Bugiri Sugar Company Limited and Kamuli Sugar Limited.

However, all isn’t rosy for Fatuma Nasali, a 17-year-old teenage mother, who resides in Bubambwe Village, Baitambogwe Sub-county in Mayuge.

 Ms Nasali said she was compelled to work in sugarcane plantations to take care of her baby.

“Because my husband can’t take care of us, I have to struggle to make ends meet through working in sugarcane plantations,’’ she said yesterday.

Ms Nasali added: “I produced at the age of 15 years, but lost my first baby. I currently have an 8-month-old baby and I stay with my mother.”

She explained that she would earn between Shs300 and Shs1,000 for each bundle of sugarcanes she carried, which also depended on the distance from the plantation to the roadside where trucks park.

She, however, described working in sugarcane plantations as “tiresome” and “predominantly occupied by men because it involves a lot of energy”.

Ms Nasali said she would leave the plantations if she got capital to start her own business.

Ms Roy Kisakye, 18, said she delivered at the age of 16 years while in Primary Seven, but the man responsible for her pregnancy reportedly disappeared, forcing her to work as casual labourer in the sugarcane plantations.

She said she is paid Shs20,000 for weeding an acre, and between Shs1,000 and Shs2,000 for cutting and ferrying a bundle of sugarcane, which contains at least 25 canes.

Ms Alice Musazi, also a teen mother in Mayuge , said lack of basic needs for her two children has forced her to do “any work”, including ferrying raw cane from the garden, weeding sugarcane plantations, and digging people’s gardens.

She said: “Getting a well-paying job is a challenge due to my lack of requisite skills and academic credentials.”

Mr Faizal Baliruno, a sugarcane farmer in Mayuge, said most of the teenage mothers are financially incapacitated, while some of their babies’  fathers are deadbeat dads, and also teenagers, who are still under their parents’ care.

Mr Baliruno said most of the workers in his plantation are teen mothers, most of whom work with their babies because they can’t afford nannies at home. “They can make up to between Shs4,000 and Shs5,000 per day, depending on work done,” he said.

Teen pregnancies

At 9 million, adolescents make up a quarter of the population in Uganda, according to Unicef.       

The UN agency said  young people, especially adolescent girls, grapple with poverty, HIV/Aids, teenage pregnancy, gender-based violence, among others.

The United Nations Fund for Population activities fact sheet (2021) indicates that Busoga tops the six sub-regions in teenage pregnancies, with the most affected districts being Kamuli (6,535) and Mayuge (6,205).

A 2018 report by Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) showed that one in four Ugandan women has given birth by the age of 18 years .

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