I want to see girls who can move with their heads up

Lillian, one of our APPCO staff members, is a skills facilitator and a personate girl child activist. She has facilitated many sessions to mentor girls and young women and share her knowledge on Life skills, SRHR, menstrual hygiene and human rights.

When schools in Uganda closed for a period of 21 months during COVID-19, many girls had to be home, leaving them vulnerable to gender-based violence and teenage pregnancy, among other deteriorating effects of COVID 19. To avoid leaving the girls in the Mukono district behind, APPCO implements the Action for Girls Empowerment Project (AGE) since 2021.

Lillian participated in training the girls with various skills which included Soap and shampoo Making, tailoring, baking, hairdressing, and producing bags. These trainings are aimed at building their capacities in relevant skills which can serve as a source of revenue during these challenging times.

“I want to see a girl child well established, confident with high esteem who can move with her head up”

is Lillian’s motivation to inspire the girls.

Many of the girls had dropped out of school, were young mothers, early married or living with a disability. Therefore, Lillian’s soft skills sessions on social skills, interpersonal skills, and a positive attitude were also instrumental in raising their self-esteem and overcoming stigma and trauma. Lilian expressed that “It gives me great joy when these girls and some of their parents get to call me for advice every now and then”.

“The majority of the girls have grown more self-assured, are now mentors in their communities, talk and express themselves freely in public, they also freely share their experiences with their peers.” –

Lillian

When schools reopened, Lillian got involved in the initiative of starting school clubs for the young students in various schools around Mukono district with the health club, human rights clubs, and many others created. In these clubs, topics such as sexual and reproductive health, menstrual hygiene, gender-based violence and others are debated.

Funded by the Children’s Rights and Violence Prevention Fund (CRVPF), the AGE intervention promotes self-confidence and empowerment of female youth by building capacities in health, life skills and income generation.