By Jaspher Ouni
The high rate of poverty and the need for money have been attributed to the increasing child marriages in Lira and Alebtong districts.
Foundation for integrated development (FIRD), an organization that supports girls in vulnerable conditions in the two districts, has revealed.
The executive director of FIRD Harriet Adong, says they found that poverty is the leading cause of child marriage followed by the need by some parents to get money after marrying off their daughters.
She says some of the girls are orphans without guardians to take care of them.
This forces them to look at marriage as the only way to attain livelihood.
This worsened during the covid-19 pandemic.
According to Adong, FIRD has supporting child mothers, victims of gender-based violence, and teenage pregnancies.
With support from Plan international Uganda, Adong says they were able to enroll some of these girls for vocational training to acquire skills in tailoring, agriculture, hairdressing, and entrepreneurship among others.
The enterprises were considered as most affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
Other girls were supported with unconditional cash transfers to empower them economically so that they can revive businesses affected by covid-19.
Gracious Ayo and Sandra Apio, all child mothers who benefited from eight sewing machines given by FIRD recently said they were forced to get married to raise money for their families.
Lira city male youth councilor Haggard Oluma warned parents against treating girls as sources of money.
Oluma instead asked parents to educate girls for future benefits.
He also appealed to members of the community to always report cases of child marriages in their areas to authorities so that perpetrators are arrested and prosecuted.
The LC III of Abok sub-county in Oyam district Philips Ogile the problems were brought about by the twenty years of Lord’s resistance army rebels’ insurgence in Northern Uganda.
Ogile asked government and development partners to consider rehabilitating young girls in places that hosted internally displaced people’s camps in a bid to bring to an end, child marriages, teenage pregnancies, and gender-based violence.
