During the 2020/2021 Covid19 lockdowns, over 90,000 girls under 18 got pregnant when they were not going to school according to the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development. Most girls engaged in sex with fellow students, and many older men in the villages enticed them into sex by offering presents and money. In Luuka alone, over 700 girls were impregnated.
The See Them Grow Foundation begun a piggery project with funding and donations from the Rockefeller Foundation, Friends of East Africa Foundation as well as individual donors to provide short-term solution to the high increase in the pregnancy rate in Luuka district due to Covid 19 lockdown.
This project has so far:
- Provided 16 piglets to 16 teenage mothers since 2021
- Employed 5 teenage mother and 2 males to man the piggery project
- Impacted targeted household incomes by offering piglets & employment
STGF’s focus is going to be on sustainable livestock and organic farming to train local entrepreneurs, youths and teenage mothers by connecting them to the cities of Iganga and Jinja (with 80% unemployment rate) to market the finished goods. Our goal is also to open workshops for food processing and drying methods, marketing their goods, welding and metal fabrication, fashion and design, arts and crafts, bakery, plumbing, electrical installations and lastly but not least, automotive mechanics. .
Thank you for your generosity towards this project. This project is constructing a bigger sty (pig pen) next year that will house over 30 adult pigs. This expansion is valuable as the income is also likely to increase, the community is likely to benefit a lot as they will be able to learn pig farming and bookkeeping within our farm. Our main focus in agriculture is now piggery, rabbit and mushroom farming to be achieved by the end of this year.