At least 13 girls in each school were either married or got pregnant during Covid-19 – Report

By Ben Musanje

28^th April 2022

John Paul II Justice and Peace Centre –JP2JPC, a Catholic Church founded organization has released its research findings showing a number of teenage girls either impregnated or married off during the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

The report titled Covid-19 and Education of Teenage Girls in Uganda was conducted in partnership with the Association of Religious in Uganda- ARU, Uganda Episcopal Conference –UEC Department of Justice and Peace, and Lay Apostolate in collaboration with Julius Nyerere Leadership Center –JNLC Makerere University.

Alfred Avuni, the JP2JPC Director while launching the report at their headquarters in Nsambya says that they visited 159 girls from the 12 schools in the four regions of the country including the Central, North, West and East where they found at least 107 accounts for pregnancy and 52 girls married.

According to the report, on average 13 girls were affected by either marriage or got pregnant from the 12-schools visited though there were no official statistics from the schools visited on the number of girls that got pregnant or married out, except for Oryang Primary School – Nebbi District.

Avuni says that their study focused on challenges posed by Covid-19 on the education of teenage girls, practical measures by the government to address the challenges, gaps in the measures and generation of policy action.

Fr. Fredrick Tusingire, the Executive Secretary for Lay Apostolate Commission of the Uganda Episcopal Conference –UEC who was the Guest of honor on the report launch expressed his worry over increasing trafficking in persons and child abuse that are not paid attention to by the government and the human rights defenders yet many Ugandans are affected.