According to a 2017 report published by Girls Not Brides in Uganda, 40% of girls are married before the age of 18 and 10% before the age of 15. This trend is confirmed by UNICEF, which ranked the country as number 18 in the world in terms of the early marriage prevalence rate. The closure of schools in March 2020 as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have increased this prevalence rate. A July 2020 survey conducted by New Life Foundation for Community Rural Development (NeFCoRD) in Kasese District identified over 1,000 teenage pregnancies during the period of March to July 2020. To give girls a future beyond an early marriage, and to enable teenagers say no to teenage pregnancies as a result of harmful practices, they need help in claiming their rights and changing the minds and attitudes of their communities. To address the above challenge, NeFCoRD established Jays Sports Academy (But changed the name to Kamaiba Soccer Academy) located and training at Kasese SDA primary School playground located along Keisiga Road, Kamaiba Ward, Central Division Kasese Municipality to run a project that trains girls and boys from 6 to 19 years in football, peer education, life skills, debating and counseling and guidance. As of now August 2022, we have 80 girls and 120 boys enrolled at Kamaiba Soccer academy who have been training every day at 3:30PM to 5:30PM before they went back to school in January 2022. Since reopening of schools, they are training every Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Among the 80 girls, we have 10 girls (14-17years) who we rescued from cohabiting husbands claiming that schools had closed for so long and they were not willing to go back to school. As of now they are continuing with their education in primary and secondary level. It is through Supporting Programme Opportunities in sports to fight teenage pregnancies in Kasese district project that we want to reach a big number of adolescents by training them in sexual reproductive health education and rights, football, peer education, debating, counselling and guidance within the academy and in Kasese district. we want to reach the parents, church and cultural leaders, football managers, teachers and other community members so that they can understand how to protect their children from engaging in harmful practices which may lead them into early pregnancies and early marriages. Football provides a place where girls and boys meet with their peers to have fun while at the same time learning about issues such as child marriages, teenage pregnancies, leadership and education and in this way it is working. Football also is working as a media of communication as it brings many people together regardless of gender, religion, political party, age and tribe as they watch training matches and competitions. As we organise our matches, we begin with child protection messages and the need for end teenageppregnancies messages at the pitch. The boys and girls not in school and from vulnerable families will be trained in tailoring and shoe making as a means to decrease their depandance on other people instead make their own income from the skills acquired. We target to reach 600 girls and boys aged 6 to 24 years, and 400 men and women aged 25 to 50 years. This project will be carried out in Kasese municipality county and Busongora North County in Kasese district and centred at our officer in Kamaiba ward central division in Kasese Municipality We have partnered with religious and cultural leaders as evidenced in our appendices to talk to their followers about the rights of children and prevent them from engaging in harmful practices and also take part in our community compaigns . We have partnered with Reproductive Health Uganda so that they can train NeFCoRD project staff as ToTs to deliver Reproductive Health Education and Rights and work with us in preparing the project manual for activities under reproductive health education and Rights. We have also partnered with Kitara region Football Association an administrative branch of Federation of Uganda Football association to help us in training 30 youth as coaches and also give guidance on academy management. The Kasese district Probation and social Welfare officer has also recommended our project and pledged to work with us in implementing our project. This project will cost €44,224 of which €3,462 has been requested from Vision international Actors, €5,007 has been secured though not yet recieved on our account from Conservation and Demand agency, € 32,516 requested from Impact 2024 international and NeFCoRD to contribute € 3,239. We have a bank account in Equity Bank Uganda Limited in the name of New life Foundation for Community Rural Development, number 1022202617489 and Swift Code: EQBLUGKA The project is to start in February 2023 and end February 2025. More Photos of our academy children can be found on FOOTLOOK WEBSITE https://www.footlook.it/pages/Kamaibasocceracademy Twitter: https://twitter.com/kamaiba Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NeFCoRD/
Supporting Programme Opportunities in sports to fight teenage pregnancies in Kasese district
