Uganda Association of University Women

Skills Building and Sexual Reproductive Health Education Project

In 2008 the Uganda Association ran a successful income generating skills training project for young single teen mothers which also provided courses on child care and parenting.  The project provided a much needed community support structure for young mothers.  This model has been adapted in 2009/2010 to include courses for an equally vulnerable group of girls, school drop-outs. 

20 young girls, who are school drop-outs, orphans and casual workers/house maids are being trained to make beads (paper, plastic and clay beads) and in bead threading.  Participants are also shown how to market their products.  Project organisers hope that once trained, the girls will be able to participate in the training of others.

In addition to the skills training, a training workshop has been held for the girls on reproductive health issues, including HIV/AIDS.  A simple pre-training and post-training questionnaire was used to guage participants' understanding and to test knowledge and measure changes in attitude and behaviour on completion of the course. 

Course leaders report that the project has presented a number of challenges for the trainers this time as many of the girls do not have basic literacy and numeracy skills, resulting in problems with the simple tasks of measuring and drawing lines.  Some are mothers and have to bring their children with them to training and those working (house maids) miss training on certain days.

Parents and staff of the local primary shcool are involved and the progress of the girls will continue to be tracked once the training is complete.