{"id":1652,"date":"2022-05-09T16:57:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T13:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/Blog\/?p=1652"},"modified":"2022-05-17T12:20:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T09:20:48","slug":"young-mothers-in-kampala-welcome-covid-19-relief-packages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/young-mothers-in-kampala-welcome-covid-19-relief-packages\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Mothers in Kampala Welcome COVID-19 Relief Packages."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reach a Hand Uganda (RAHU), in partnership with the Aga Khan Foundation and the European Union came up with a five-month project to support vulnerable young women and girls, especially those that got pregnant and dropped out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"young
One of the excited young mothers from Nabutiti village and her 6months child.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The project was officially launched last Friday, May 6, 2022, according to a press release from Reach <\/a>a Hand Uganda<\/a>. One thousand vulnerable young mothers in Kampala and Arua districts were registered to benefit from this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A team from Reach a Hand Uganda and the International University of East Africa (IUEA) executed the two-day distribution phase of the project, which lasted from May 11th to May 12th, 2022, at IUEA. This phase targeted the Makindye division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mr.
Mr. Obua Aloncious helping a young mother carry her food items during the distribution exercise.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mr Obua Aloncious, Reach a Hand staff, told us that the project aims to assist vulnerable women aged 12 to 24 years old to regain their footing after the wrath of the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As RAHU, we believe in empowering young people to make informed decisions that affect their lives and reach out a hand to vulnerable young people. We aim to empower them to reach their full potential.” <\/p>– Mr Obua <\/strong>said during the distribution exercise. <\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In addition, he said, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The young women that we have reached out to are those who are pregnant or those who have recently given birth but are not getting much support from their families.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The team gifted 226 young mothers from the Makindye division with relief hygiene kits (bars of soap), food packages (a bag of rice, posho, and beans), a mosquito net, and a “mama kit” for the pregnant women, the youngest being 15 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"young
A young mother arrives at IUEA lower parking, to collect her relief package.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Namakula Vivian, a 24-year-old mother and her 8-month old baby was glad to be one of the beneficiaries of this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Namakula laments that after failing to make it to university due to a lack of funds, she pursued a short course in photography and landed an excellent job in town. However, when COVID-19 hit the world, she, unfortunately, became pregnant, lost her job, and her family abandoned her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Namakula
24 year old Namakula Vivian and her 8months child after receiving their relief packages.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“I am happy to be a part of this relief project. I didn’t even have a net. This net will at least save us from mosquitoes. Soap is also very expensive these days, and my husband is currently jobless; I thank Reach a Hand Uganda for thinking about us.”<\/p>– Namakula narrates.<\/strong><\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Mr Ssali Gerald, one of IUEA’s marketing staff at the distribution exercise, shared that the university has also done its best to support disadvantaged and vulnerable women by providing scholarships and employment opportunities. He revealed that one of the recent beneficiaries of the scholarship is Namutebi<\/a> Ruth Elizabeth<\/a>, a second-year architecture student who is living with HIV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ssali added that more than 80% of IUEA housekeeping staff are from the neighbouring villages of Kansanga, Nabutiti, and Kitalanga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Over 80% of our housekeeping staff are young women and men from our neighbourhood. Some of them are young mothers trying to earn a living in the city. IUEA is glad to support them.” <\/p>– Mr Ssali reveals.<\/em><\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"Mr.
Mr. Ssali Gerald (L) and a young mother (R) during the distribution exercise.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Apart from scholarships and employment, we have also witnessed several supportive projects from IUEA, like the ‘Pad Every Girl’ project by Msichana Uganda.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year the IUEA guild council also partnered with Reach a Hand Uganda to run a sexual reproductive health campaign<\/a> whereby they distributed condoms and pads to the neighbouring community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By: IUEA Connect<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through its COVID-19 relief project, Reach a Hand Uganda has donated food and hygiene kits to 226 vulnerable young mothers living in Kampala.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1652"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1661,"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions\/1661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuea.ac.ug\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}