Child marriages rise in Sembabule as poverty and drought continue to bite

SEMBABULE-Authorities in Sembabule district are worried over the increasing cases of child marriages which they attribute to poverty and a prolonged drought spell in the district.

Sembabule district lies in the cattle corridor whose livelihood depends on keeping livestock, and due to the prolonged drought spell, many parents have forced their children to leave school and instead ordered them to move livestock to far places in search of water and fresh grass.

Sembabule District Probation Officer, Twaha Musoke said between February and July this year, 56 percent of children in the district dropped out of school during the drought spell.

Of the 56 percent of the children who dropped out of school, 44 percent were girls who the official said were defiled as they were herding cattle in the bushes and later forced into marriage.

”Many girls are more susceptible to sexual abuse as they walk long distances with cattle looking for water,” he said. He said men especially those in the sub-counties of Lugusulu, Ntuusi, Lwemiyaga, and Nabitanga have taken advantage of the drought spell and defiled girls in the bushes.

He said many rural poor families of pastoralists in the district have a habit of marrying off girls to older men to get money as compensation once they find that their daughters have been impregnated.

Matovu blamed LC1 chairmen who connive with parents and defilers and don’t report such cases to police, depriving the girls of their dignity and right to education.

He said the district probation office registered 40 cases of girls who were defiled and impregnated and suspects were prosecuted in court and imprisoned.

Sembabule district LC5 Chairman, Patrick Nkalubo said the district security has instituted a committee comprising police officers and community development officers at the sub-county level to monitor villages and curb cases of early marriages.

”We do not want to see parents kill the future of girls. Action will be taken against them,” he said.

However, the district has partnered with  ‘Rakai Health Sciences Program’ a non-governmental organisation, to rehabilitate victims and train them with skills so that they can be self-reliant and avoid being infected with HIV/AIDS.

The co-founder of Rakai Health Sciences Program Prof. Dr. David Serwadda said adolescent women and girls in Sembabule district are not economically empowered and they tend to depend on men who sexually abuse them.

He said they have started training young mothers under the ‘DREAMS PROGRAM’ to give them knowledge and skills so that they can be economically self-sufficient.

Prof. Serwadda said the HIV prevalence rate among young mothers between the age of 18 and 25 is very high, especially in the central region. Many girls, he said, are benefiting from the training and have been skilled to create their own jobs

Masaka regional manager for the ‘DREAMS PROJECT’, Iddi Matovu said they have so far supported over 190,000 teenage mothers in other districts of Bukomansimbi, Kalungu, Kyotera, Lyantonde, Lwengo, Rakai in the Greater Masaka region.

“These young mothers have been imparted with skills on economic empowerment to help them resist temptations that increase risks to HIV/AIDS.”

He said young mothers have been trained in tailoring, home economics, hairdressing, weaving, and mechanics and they have been given machines as start-up capital. 

https://thecooperator.news/youth-parliament-urges-government-on-covid-19-teenage-pregnancies/

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