Stop poverty before it starts – Empower Out of School Adolescent Girl ( BONGA Program for Uganda and South Sudan)

• In Event: Evidence and Results: Educating Vulnerable Girls to Become Empowered Women

Proposal

600 million, or 34%, of the world’s young people live in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2,6 million adolescents live in Uganda (DHS 2014), out of whom 420000 have never been to school. South Sudan is home to 905000 adolescent girls (DHS 2008), of whom 61% cannot read and write. The Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5 call for access to quality education, gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls. To attain these, education for adolescent girls is crucial.

The plight of adolescent girls in East Africa is startling. Adolescent girls face the possibilities of early childbirth and marriage, dropping out of school, and acquiring a variety of sexually transmitted infections. In Uganda alone, 25% of all teenage girls are pregnant (Uganda Bureau of Statistics), causing considerable drop out from school. Other reasons for school drop-out include cultural traditions; lack of guidance and counseling in adolescence; high school fees; early marriage and motherhood; lack of suitable school facilities for girls; household chores, sexual harassment and insecurity (UNICEF 2015).
Girls who drop out are often considered a burden and are therefore married off at an early age. They often become victims of domestic violence, as do the girls they give birth to. In Northern Uganda, Karamoja in particular, over half of adolescent girls aged 10-14 years have never been to school or are two years behind in their education (Adolescent Girls Multilevel Vulnerability Index).

Strømme Foundation, having developed the highly successful Shonglap empowerment program for adolescent girls in Bangladesh, has since 2011 adapted Shonglap to Uganda and South Sudan, through a programme known as Bonga. BONGA (“dialogue” in Swahili) is a one-year program that educates and empowers out-of-school adolescent girls to become respected and productive members of society. 15000 adolescent girls have participated in Bonga, that challenges the perception that girls are an economic burden and teaches them ways to combat the negative consequences of poverty and oppressive cultural practices, while promoting economic independence and community participation.

The results of the programme to date are encouraging. Using the Rosenberg Scale for measuring Self-esteem, SF found in 2015 that 86% of participating adolescent girls have shown improved self-esteem, which has in turn made them respected and productive members of society. Participant girls’ independence, standard of living and societal ‘value’ has improved due to increased awareness about general wellbeing, acquisition of literacy, and business and life skills. 89.4% of the adolescent girls are now engaged in different trades, and 80.4% are able to support the household economy. As a result of Bonga, the girls report increasingly participating in decision making processes at home.
BONGA recognizes that adolescent girls possess huge untapped potential. When educated, healthy, and equipped with the right skills and opportunities, they hold the key to unlocking many of society’s most pressing problems. As leaders of today and tomorrow, they can be a force for social change. As educated mothers, they will invest in the survival, education and success of the next generation.

keywords: adolescent girls, GBV,

Authors

• Sendeu Titus Msamire Tenga, Stromme Foundation

• Priscilla Mirembe Serukka, Stromme Foundation - East Africa