Rotary Roses celebrate Women’s Day with Teenage Mums

The Roses of the Rotary Fellowship for Empowering Women (RFEW) joined the rest of the world to celebrate International Women’s Day, by visiting a teenage mother’s facility –
Wakisa Ministries in Wakiso District. The visit was inspired by one of our guest speakers Vivian Kityo who also happens to be the founder of Wakisa Ministries and a yellow Rose of the
fellowship. In one of her presentations, she shared the dilemma of teenage pregnant moms and how the pandemic had greatly contributed to the rise in teenage pregnancies.

In a hopeless situation, the girls needed support in form of counseling, sanitary items like diapers and soap, foodstuff, clothes etc. The center largely depends on donations from well-wishers and friends.

The Roses visited the facility on 8th March, Women’s Day, and what a day well spent with the girls!! Having set off at about 9.30 am from Kampala, our bus arrived at midday due to traffic delays.

On arrival, we were warmly welcomed by the leaders of the institution and we dived deep into our conversations with the girls. It was a harrowing experience listening to the girls
introduce themselves, their ages, and the term of their pregnancies. Sadly, their age ranges from 13 to 19 years. Some of them were nursing their newly born infants. We were all particularly
touched by a 13-year-old innocent girl with a smiling face who was 3 months pregnant and I kept on wondering which individual male was responsible? How can one be so cruel to such a child to ruin her future as she will drop out of school while if in this case it’s the boy who is responsible, they will always get away with it and further their education? It was very disturbing.