“Our girls come from UPE schools and their parents find it hard paying school fees for secondary education. Since they are talented we convince the schools to offer them bursaries inturn for glory when they play for them at national competitions. Over 50 girls have benefited from this scheme since 2014. They come from slums and villages in Soroti where their parents are peasants and paying school fees is a huge challenge especially after primary education.
The impact of the lockdown on the parents is taking a psychological toll on them. They are not able to go to work and sustaining the family is becoming challenging more than ever. The economic fruatrations are pushing them to push their daughters in marriage due to the short term dowry or wealth they can receive.
For purposes of safeguarding the girl child from these harsh conditions its safer to get them a home where we can look after them and offer psychological support to ease the burden on the parents so that they can achieve their academic dreams and benefit from their talent”, said the Academy Director Mr. Musana Felix.
I don’t normally write in the middle of the week but this was too much for me to wait. We are in the darkest times and so many injustices are going on but if we can help it, let us do what we can in our capacity for those that need our support. From coronavirus pandemic to George Floyd’s brutal murder there is no room for breathing.
Yesterday my friend Felix Musana who has been helping the young girls in the Teso region to stay in a school for 6 years now brought to my attention disturbing news of how the young girls are now being forced by their parents to get married to get short term dowry to help them survive in this COVID19 hard times. Since school was stopped, these poor parents see no reason as to why they should wait for schools to open, and yet they are starving.
THE SOROTI CRICKET ACADEMY
The Academy uses the game of cricket as a platform to fight early marriages, promote Abstinence in pupils to fight the spread of HIV, Empowerment of the Girl Child, improve Hygiene through handwashing facilities, promoting Girl Child education, and offering career guidance to the students and Pupils through mentorship sessions.
This proposed plan is to professionally establish the already existing cricket academy situated in Soroti district, approximately 320km from the capital city, Kampala, Uganda. This concept came to birth in March 2014 through the tireless efforts of Felix Musana, a passionate cricketer with 14 years of experience in the game who currently serves as the director of the academy.
The Academy’s primary focus is to use cricket as a sport/tool to fight child marriages, drug abuse, reducing the HIV prevalence rate including providing scholarships or connecting the best cricketers to the best schools, using cricket as a career option, and finally providing career guidance to the cricketers.
Teso Region has the 3rd highest prevalence rate in the country at 4.1% only after central and southern Uganda with Kamuda Sub-county being the most affected. Eastern region has the most cases of early child marriages at 5.4% compared to other regions
The Teso sub-region has steadily recovered from the insurgency the region faced in the 1990s that left a number of orphaned children and broken homes. The sub-region is also well known for producing young, tall, and energetic children which traits that favor nurturing the cricket game, and at the same time the enthusiasm for this sport is tremendous and is growing day by day. Since its inception in March 2014, the Academy has been a self-sustaining entity and has so far registered progress in the development of talent with some of its players joining the Under 19 National Women’s cricket team as well as playing at National club level.
The academy has been and is still committed to helping the young girls in Soroti region through Cricket game to help them stay in school but now they are facing the biggest obstacle, parents forcing the girls to get married in this COVID19 pandemic and now I am writing to ask for help from you reading this or to forward it to someone who can be of help. I believe if we work together early child marriage can be prevented.
Below are the screen shots of the different scared girls who have sent messages to their coach explaining the ordeal they are going through. These are simply samples since many don’t have phones to text.
I believe if we work together, we can change the situation at hand. Also for those that did not know, the school break does not mean marriage for the young girls. They need to complete their education. #GirlsArenotBrides #EndChildMarriage #COVID19effects
Here are the social media and website Links for Soroti Cricket Academy in case you need to contact them directly to help them mitigate the situation.
Website: http://soroticricketacademy.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SorotiAcademy?s=09
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/soroticricketacademy/
Soroti Cricket Academy;
Using Cricket to empower the youth (Girlchild) and future generation of Uganda through sustainable talent development, capacity building and career guidance.
Something MUST be done starting from the ROOTS to the top .girl child exploitation is too rumpant in the Eastern region of Uganda leaving many young girls with no room of thinking positively due to the surrounding mal-pull factors.therefore it would be important if the government together with the National CSO child protection fraternity to raise up and do something for the girl child in this era of C-19.
Well said Gilbert
Banage we should help these girls for sure please save their lifestyle 🙏🙏🙏👩👩👧👩👩👧👦😢😢😢😢
That is true