Economic Strengthening

In Kasanje and Bussi, a girl becomes a mother before she becomes a woman. UBOS lists Kasanje Town Council with 71.4% of parishes reporting child marriages and 71.4% reporting child battering and neglect. When a fisherman offers UGX 5,000 for fish, a schoolgirl with no fees, no sanitary pads and a grandmother who cannot afford food sees no choice. She becomes pregnant, drops out, and her child becomes the next orphan we rescue. A teenage mother in Byangiri or at a Bussi landing site has three enemies: no education (rural Wakiso girls drop out at 46.4% before P7), no skills and no capital. HIV among fisherfolk is 26.7% against 7.3% nationally, youth HIV is 10.8% against 3.7%, and 90% of fishermen are under 40 with irregular income. When the man leaves, the girl is left with a baby, no food and stigma. We do not just give cash. We respond with: 1. Village savings and vocational skills — tailoring, hairdressing, liquid soap making, fish drying and marketing; skills that work on islands where one trip to the health centre costs UGX 5,000. 2. Starter kits, not handouts — a sewing machine, not money that will be taken by a man. A drying rack, not promises. 3. Psychosocial and business mentorship — our counsellor and teacher help her save, say no and return to school, while our matron cares for her baby. Alongside this, Village Savings and Loan Associations give caregivers, especially grandmothers, a safe place to save and borrow, with seed grants for small businesses. When a teenage mother earns UGX 10,000 a day from her own business, she does not trade sex for fish. She buys food, buys pads, returns to school, and her child is not stunted like 29.8% of Bussi's children.