Emily Simon Photography

Teen Pregnancy in Uganda

This project focuses on a Christian shelter in the city capital of Kampala, which provides dormitory housing, food, and counselling for pregnant teens from all over Uganda. Some girls come from war-affected areas in Northern Uganda, and others come from villages outside of the city. The girls stay in the shelter until they have their baby, and afterwards hope to be accepted back by their families. The shelter does not provide school instruction, and most teens wish to continue their education after the birth of their children, or to find work, often as a domestic worker.

Uganda has one of the highest population growth rates in the world. 77% of the population is under 30, averaging 7 children per female. Women marry young, and three-quarters are married by age 20. Among teens, pregnancy is at 25%. Only 19% of sexually active girls use any method of birth control, and nearly half of women 18-19 years old have had a child. Abortion is illegal in Uganda. Unmarried pregnant teens are often rejected by their families and forced to leave their home. Ugandan adults often have children together without marrying, which is culturally acceptable, but in a religious country made up of Christians and Muslims, it is the fact that the youth are sexually active at all, that is the main stigma. A 2006 UN report shows that one in every two girls between the ages of 12 and 20 has been raped in Uganda. Many of the girls depicted in this story were raped by relatives or by people they knew, and in these cases were rejected by their families because of shame.

Peace examines her baby for the first time after delivering it. Initially the doctor put the baby on the foot of the bed, leaving the room, and later returning briefly to deliver the afterbirth, and to sew her where she had torn during the delivery. Peace has a private room shared with one other woman recovering from surgery. Besides from a brief visit from the matron of the shelter, she was mostly alone for the two nights she was in the hospital.
  
Peace, 16, moments after delivering her baby in a Ugandan hospital. Patients are required to bring their own bed sheets for the bed, and cotton to be used in delivery. The posters hung above the hospital bed warn of fatal risks during pregnancy including excessive bleeding. Besides from a brief visit from the matron of the shelter, she was mostly alone for the two nights she was in the hospital.
  
Prossy, Nina, and Vivian admire a newborn just brought home from the hospital. The girls are from different regions and tribes all over Uganda, and do not all speak the same language. Their local languages are spoken at home, and English, the national language, is taught in school, though most girls have only studied through primary school, which is free. Often children do not attend primary school as their parents prefer to have them work at home, or they do not have money for school supplies and school uniforms. School fees for secondary school are expensive, and few of the girls have finished all the way through.
     
  
Goretti takes a break from plaiting Julie’s hair in the late afternoon. The girls begin their day with bible study, and take turns cooking meals for the group and washing clothes. There are no education classes given at the shelter, though many girls read bibles, and pass around a well-read copy of a maternity book. Many of the girls want to continue with their education after their babies are born, but do not know how they will pay school fees along with the cost and time spent in raising their children. School days are long, often from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm., and these girls who do not have secured housing for themselves and their babies, are unsure of childcare if they were to attend school.
  
  
Vivian, Peace, and Eve pick mushrooms to be cooked that evening, found near to the shelter. The girls rarely leave the shelter, as most do not have money for transportation and are from villages outside of the city. They go for regular medical visits paid for by the shelter, and are sometimes sent by themselves down the street to the nearby market for groceries.
     
  
This drawing by one of the girls depicts her relationship with her boyfriend. It shows her mother finding out about her pregnancy, and the day she was forced from her village as a result.
  
A fifteen-year old pregnant girl holds cooking knives used for her rotating shift cooking meals at the shelter. She was raped while retrieving water where she stayed with relatives in Kampala, and became pregnant as the result. She had fled her village in a war-affected area of Uganda and thought she would be safer in the city.
  
The kitchen where the girls cook their meals, making the basic Ugandan staples of beans, peas, maize, mashed bananas, and greens. They have cooking class twice a week, where they make mostly different varieties of fried donuts.
     
  
Hope, 17 in the group ward at a nearby hospital. She is being treated for malaria and sickle cell anemia. She worries where she will live after she delivers her baby. She wishes to make up with her father who kicked her out of the house when he found out she was pregnant. Her dream is to finish school though she is concerned with how she will afford her school fees. After the birth of her baby, she was able to return to her family in a war-affected area in the north, and received a scholarship from a church in her village to continue her education.
   
Drugs used to treat malaria.
   
     
  
Hope, 17 in a nearby hospital, is treated for malaria and sickle cell anemia, by receiving medicine through a drip in her hand.
  
Sarah, hours after delivering her newborn. She is at a public hospital staying in a crowded group ward where women sleep two per bed, as well as on mats under the beds and in the aisles.
  
The girls admire a newborn brought home from the hospital. The girls usually have names in mind for their children, but leave it up to their elders to give the names. In this case, the director of the shelter names the infants. One of the youngest pregnant girls at the shelter (right) looks on, uneasily, not yet ready to be a mother.
     
  
Sarah shortly after arriving back at the shelter a day after the delivery of her newborn daughter. The other girls excitedly bustle about bathing the baby and changing its diaper, while Sarah nurses a cup of porridge, her first meal of the day.
  
  
     
  
Vivian (third from the left) gathers her belongings to return back to the shelter after the birth of her daughter in the hospital. She will be able to stay there for a month before having to find another place to live. Often their families will accept them back after the delivery of their babies, or they can find a relative to live with.