Nakiranda Milly (real name withheld), a senior two student, had to withdraw from studies when she conceived after being defiled by her teacher. This meant that her academic dream of gaining a professional skill was doomed since she had to halt her studies. Her story is like that of many teenage mothers in Uganda and across the region who drop out of school to avoid being ridiculed by their peers and society for becoming pregnant at a tender age, which in Uganda is below 18 years.
Luckily for Milly and other teenage mothers, there are rescue and restoration centres with safe spaces where these young women can gain access to spiritual nurturing, counselling, education, health, and job training, among other services. These interventions empower them to transform their lives, their unfortunate circumstances notwithstanding.
The Remnant Generation is a non-governmental organization that rescues and restores survivors of sexual abuse and pregnant teen girls. The facility rekindles hope for teenage mothers through providing a comprehensive support system for teenage mothers, offering spiritual nurturing, counselling, education, health services and vocational training. This space of support restores dignity, self-confidence and empowers the young ladies to positively turn their life trajectory.
Corporate organizations, pool resources and expertise to address complex societal challenges like teenage pregnancy which may pave way for school dropouts.
Airtel Uganda’s, the 12 Days of Christmas is a key calendar event where the business shares the festive joy with its communities. This entails departments nominating projects in their communities that can be supported; however, the identified projects should demonstrate the ability to transform lives by empowering the beneficiaries in a sustainable manner.
Last year, 12 projects were identified and supported, and The Remnant Generation – school of purpose was one of them. During the visit, Airtel Uganda donated, among many other items, an electric sewing machine. The machine has several advantages, including giving a better sewing finish, performing embroidery, letter placement, and branding on clothes, among other things the user can set it to do.
Of the 500 teenage mothers who graduated from School of Purpose under The Remnant Generation, 30 girls completed the tailoring course, and 4 of the tailoring graduates were retained at reputable production houses after their internship. Upon acquiring the skills, the graduates were able to showcase their work under the ‘Thrive Collection’ showcasing ready to wear dresses, throw-on robes, bags, aprons, and skirts, among others.
Airtel Uganda CSR manager, Charity R. Bukenya, said, “Isn’t this what humanity is about? Opening doors of success for the most vulnerable among us. Such success stories of teenage mothers graduating from vocational training programs and finding their feet to still live a dignified life demonstrate the tangible and positive impact of social initiatives. Airtel’s 12 Days of Christmas is a representation of the various initiatives that the business has implemented to empower its community. Additionally, the business has made outreaches through Airtel Cares, whose pillars of health, education, and technology are the overarching areas of focus for the different corporate initiatives that Airtel participates in.”
“This year, we visited the beneficiaries of our projects and were impressed by the positive stories that were shared by The Remnant Generation. Our various social corporate initiatives are implemented to transform the livelihoods of our people by extending resources that give them a reason to imagine the world being a better place. We have empowered the communities with resources that are helping them create the change that they seek.” Ms. Bukenya concluded.
Furthermore, Airtel Uganda has integrated its product and service offering into its CSR/I activities, given the importance and need of keeping people connected through voice, data, and other communication services; thus, they have installed internet connections and upgraded connectivity to the first 5G and 4G networks across the country in most of the centres or homes where the projects supported are located.
