Young Mother Gardeners

Adolescent Sexual & Reproductive Health (ASRH) for Young Women Gardeners

Addressing the needs and aspirations of the whole adolescent mother through an integrated approach

Young Mother Gardeners

Gender Rights Workshops

Male Adolescent Dialogue Participants

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Use of Modern Contraception

Gender Rights Workshops

When motherhood begins early, opportunity should not end

For many adolescent girls in Kasese, becoming a mother early can bring challenges that extend far beyond pregnancy and childbirth. Young mothers often face limited access to accurate sexual and reproductive health information, difficulty affording appropriate services, disrupted education, economic insecurity, and social stigma and isolation that can affect their ability to make informed decisions about their health and future. Unplanned pregnancies are usually linked to economic vulnerability, where girls will have sexual relations with boys or older men in exchange for basic needs such as food, transportation, school supplies and other necessities.

Young mothers need safe spaces where they can learn, share their experiences, build confidence, understand their rights, develop supportive peer networks and explore practical pathways toward economic empowerment. An integrated approach recognizes the young mother as a whole person with health, livelihood, educational, social and personal aspirations that all need support.

The ASRH for Young Mother Gardeners Program (or Young Mothers Program, YMP), integrates these elements together. Organic home and community gardening is a practical, low-cost pathway toward economic empowerment. By building skills, growing healthy food and earning income, young mothers are becoming less dependent on others for their basic needs, With an integrated approach, the YMP supports adolescent mothers to work toward the futures they envision for themselves and their children.

ASRH Gatherings

Creating spaces to learn, connect and dream

ASRH Gatherings for Young Mother Gardeners

Over the course of three years (2022-2025), the Young Mothers Program organized 25 ASRH Gatherings for Young Mother Gardeners, bringing together 500 adolescent mothers for interactive learning, sharing, food and play. The Gatherings were safe and supportive spaces to discuss the challenges of early motherhood, receive accurate SRH information, and explore empowerment through organic gardening. Young mothers shared their dreams for the future in drawings , which formed the basis for continued YMP support to help realize these dreams.

I am 16 years old. My dream is to go back to school such that I complete my studies and become a secondary teacher. I will improve my kitchen garden. I will get married and produce five children, and stay with my family in my own house. I will keep poultry for consumption and commercial purposes.

Young Mother Kyabarungira Sub-County

I am 20 years old. My dream is to have a well-established kitchen garden. I dream of being the main supplier of vegetables to restaurants and the people in my neighborhood. I will have a banana plantation and keep poultry for commercial purposes. I will get married, have a good home, give birth to four children and take them to good schools.

Young Mother Kitswamba Sub-County

Learn & Build Knowledge

Learn & Discuss SRH, family planning, STI prevention, healthy relationships and their rights. Young mothers receive and discuss practical information related to sexual and reproductive health

Connect & Support One Another

Gatherings bring young mothers together to share experiences and challenges with early motherhood and develop peer networks supported by the YMP.

Dream & Plan for the Future

Breaking social stigma, dream card activities, and a focus on economic empowerment enable young mothers to envision pathways toward greater self-reliance.

Young mothers’ dreams

What young mothers learned

I have learnt that giving birth is not the end of one’s life, one can still achieve her dreams even when she gives birth at a young age. I was inspired by Immaculate’s (YMP Coordinator) life experience of being a young mother.

Young Mother Hima Sub-County

I have learnt through kitchen gardening; one can raise money to start up a business and buy other needs for herself and the baby.

Young Mother Maliba Sub-County

Learned that most of the family planning misconceptions are not true, they are said to discourage us from going for the family planning methods

Young Mother Hima Sub-County

I am now an informed person about sexual reproductive health, I have learnt how best to protect myself from having unplanned pregnancies and avoiding STIs.

Young Mother Maliba Sub-County

Whole Adolescent Concept

YMP adopts an integrated approach to support the whole adolescent mother

Sexual & Reproductive Health

Knowledge, family planning and STI prevention.

Economic Empowerment

Organic vegetable gardening as a pathway to income and self-reliance.

Nutrition

Vegetables and income improve household food security and nutrition.

Rights & Protection

Young mothers learn their rights and where to seek help.

Leadership

Young Mother Volunteers support their peers to realize their dreams.

Aspirations

Young mothers identify dreams and develop pathways toward them.

Young mothers' economic empowerment

From economic vulnerability to self-reliance

Economic empowerment is a journey toward self-reliance, where adolescent mothers no longer feel pressured by poverty to seek money from boyfriends nor parents.

They are able to contribute to their own basic needs, provide care and love for their children, and plan a brighter future.

Combined with information on SRH, economic empowerment has led to common use of modern methods of contraception (90%) and far fewer unplanned pregnancies.

Why kitchen and community gardening matter

Income

Sell vegetables to support household needs.

Nutrition

Provide nutritious food for mothers and children.

Self-reliance

Reduce dependence on parents and boyfriends/older male sexual partners

Food security

Year-round home grown vegetables + purchased food from garden income.

Business capital

Use garden income to start or grow another business.

Positive livelihood

Build productive routines and opportunities.

Vegetable gardening reduces stress since the young mother is fully engaged in work. Most young mothers are stressed because of a lack of basic needs. When they raise their own money from gardening it relieves them from the stress they have.

Young Mother ASRH Gathering

Vegetables are very nutritious and serve a good purpose in the life of the mother and the child. They boost the immunity of an individual. Young mothers become energetic and active in livelihood activities if they have good health.

Young Mother ASRH Gathering

Young Mother Volunteers

Young mother leaders supporting their peers to realize their dreams

At each Gathering, one young mother with strong leadership skills and a flourishing garden is selected be be a Young Mother Volunteer (YMV).

The role of the YMV is to accompany 20 to 25 young mothers in monthly home visits to address their SRH, psycho-social and livelihood needs. Monitored and trained by the YMP Coordinator and 1000 WG team, the YMVs work with the young mothers to develop short-term plans and longer term aspirations, such as return to school, earning steady income from gardens, and having healthy, respectful relationships.

The YMVs help to organize regular social, educational, and livelihood activities for the young mothers they supervise, including know-your-rights workshops, mixed gender dialogues, organic gardening and field trips to local colleges.

Know their rights, protect their futures.

Young mothers attend participatory sessions (Knowing Your Rights) to understand their rights and responsibilities as children, mothers and women under Uganda laws, facilitated by a local leader with the Justice Center Uganda (JCU). They share personal experiences with rights abuses and learn where to go to report domestic violence and seek relief.

Know

Understand their rights and responsibilities.

Recognize

Identify abuse, violence and harmful practices.

Seek help

Know where to report abuse and seek support.

I have two children. While at school (secondary level), I had a boyfriend who was ahead of me, he got me pregnant and my parents told me to go and stay with him. My boyfriend told his parents about it and they could not refuse me. My partner completed school, went for a certificate course and became an electrician. My relationship was moving on well till I gave birth to a second child. My partner's behaviour changed drastically after he got a job. He became controlling, manipulative and emotionally abusive. He would slap me, push me and even choke me. I remember being hospitalised twice with severe injuries of which one was a miscarriage. But each time I was too afraid to report him fearing his retaliation, I lived in a prison of fear, isolation and stress. One day I realized I would lose my life and sought help from the Women’s Local Council, with their support I found courage to leave him and go back to my parents. My rights to equality, freedom from discrimination were violated. I am now determined to use my experience to help other children, be a voice for those who are still in abusive relationships. Teenage mothers are really going through a lot because of ignorance.

Young Mother, KYR workshop

I still remember the day I was bullied at school; I was 13 years old and had just joined S1. The older students at school humiliated me, beat me up, poured water on me and took everything that my parents had shopped and packed for me. I would be forced to wash their plates and clothes every evening. It became a normal situation for us because I wasn’t the only victim of such. We felt like no one believed us, we were left alone, like servants not students. This experience left me with emotional scars, I hated myself and I was forced to leave school. My parents requested me to change schools but I was worried of finding the same situation at another school. I told them that I will never go back to school, hence the cause for my school dropout. I have now realised that what happened to me was a human rights abuse, my right to education and non-discrimination were violated. Bullying should be stopped in schools and students rights be advocated.

Young Mother, KYR workshop

Mixed Gender Dialogues

Creating space for young women and men to
challenge harmful norms and build healthy relationships

Young mothers and adolescent boys come together to talk openly about gender expectations, changing harmful gender norms, and building healthy relationships.

How can harmful norms be challenged?

Parents & Elders

Sensitize families and elders.

Leaders

Engage religious, cultural and community leaders.

Girls' Empowerment

Raise girls' aspirations and agency.

Education

Promote gender studies and awareness.

New Perspectives

Challenge gender-biased expectations.

Equality

Ensure boys and girls participate equally.

Invest in a Young Mother. Empower a Brighter Future.

Your support helps young mothers access knowledge, reproductive health, peer support, organic gardening skills, and economic empowerment opportunities. By investing in young mothers today, we help them care for their children, pursue their dreams and move toward greater self-reliance.

Support the Program

About NAWAD

NAWAD is committed to promoting a stable and peaceful society where women and girls enjoy equal rights with men and boys in the different spheres of life.

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Contact

+256-707274993

+256-760260097

Toll- free: 0800-365-365

nawad@nawad.co.ug

P.O BOX 106555, Kampala-Uganda

Plot 3378; block 223, Kyaliwajjala.