“The parents of the girl and the boy communicate on the phone. You will not see any gatherings to negotiate bridewealth for underage girls. They no longer bring things to the market. They deliver the needed items directly to the girl’s parent’s home without the girl’s consent,” says Okello.
Filbert Baguma the Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) General Secretary because of government’s delay to fulfil this promise, the body resolved to conduct a campaign in Teso and Western region where they have given free pads to the needy. When they went back to assess school attendance, he says they found abseentism rates to have reduced among girls.
According to information obtained from the district education department, the most affected schools are those located along the Uganda-DR Congo border where over 30 girls reportedly fled to DRC after conceiving over the past year.
The 25 million Euros project (approximately 100 billion Shillings) was being implemented in the 14 districts of the West Nile and Acholi Sub-region benefiting both the host and South Sudan refugee population.
According to statistics from the district Probation office, the majority of the cases were registered in 2019 before the government instituted the first lockdown following the outbreak of coronavirus disease.
