we started the Courtesy Visits at both Buikwe District HQ and Njeru Municipal Council. We met the DCDO, SCDO, RDC, DEO, DISO, Mayor + a few Councilors. Introduced the cluster partnership and the activities we will carry out under this phase of the Adolescent Girls Power Program in Mbikko and got approval to proceed as planned. Here we were meeting head teachers from the secondary schools in buikwe shaarinf our vision and mission
Following the successful completion of a three-day power analysis training, a team of 10 trained
cluster staff members — including programme staff, 1 Executive Director, and community
volunteers — will be deployed into the field to conduct power analysis sessions with adolescent
girls in the selected communities.
Methodology
The 10 trained cluster staff members were deployed across the following 10 communities:
Njeru West Ward: (Village 1, Village 2, Village 3, Village 4, Village 5)
Njeru North Ward: (Village 6, Village 7, Village 8, Village 9, Village 10)
The team will used participatory tools to listen to and document adolescent
girls’ voices, gaining a clear and detailed understanding of the issues affecting girls in each
community. The exercise engaged a total of at least 420 adolescent girls including Child
mothers, Out-of-School adolescents, Primary and Secondary In-School adolescents from both
Private and Government schools, and adolescent Commercial Sex Workers. Participants will be
organised into age groups of 10–13, 14–16, and 17–19 years.
Facilitators used produce a structured, evidence-rich report from each community following their
sessions.
Power Analysis Objective;
The activity supported the cluster in exploring and identifying who, what, where, when and
how of power in the ordinary lives of girls in Mbikko. The
findings will ensure that programme design is directly rooted in the voices and lived experiences
of the girls themselves.
Time frame / Activity date and venue
The Power Analysis data collection was conducted over a period of five (5) days,
commencing on Monday 25th May 2026 and concluding on Friday 29th May 2026, across the
10 selected communities in Njeru West Ward and Njeru North Ward, Njeru Municipality –
Buikwe District. Sessions ran from 8:30am – 4:30pm daily.
Data collection used a mixed-methods approach combining structured individual surveys and
Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). Respondents included adolescent girls (both in-school and
out-of-school) and their parents/caretakers. All data collection will be conducted in strict
adherence to grant’s safeguarding, informed consent, and data protection protocols.
Enumerators enumerators applied trauma-informed and age-appropriate approaches throughout, ensuring
girls felt safe, respected, and heard.
The collected data shall be used in designing a programme report and long-term grant proposal
that best fits adolescent girls in Mbikko.
Baseline Survey Objective;
The main objective of the Baseline Survey data collection was to collect data on study respondents’
(adolescent girls and parents’) attitudes and behaviours related to abuses that girls face in their
communities, identify the current status of adolescent girls, and learn about their social networks.
This will generate important information that will help the cluster plan for future activities and
further assessment of the impact of the project.
The exercise will enhance a deeper understanding of adolescent girls’ issues in Mbikko, Njeru
Municipality, Buikwe District by collecting both Qualitative and Quantitative data from the
perspectives of adolescent girls in and out of school, as well as community members (parents and
caretakers of the adolescent girls).
The Mbikko Girls Cluster comprised of three like-minded organizations; Gals Hope International
Network (GHI-Network), Buikwe Touch Rehabilitation Ministries (BTRMU) and Women and
Youth Foundation – Njeru (WYF) under the Adolescent Girls Power Project Planning and
Learning grant from our partners conducted a
Baseline Survey Data Collection exercise across the 10 selected communities in Mbikko, Njeru
Municipality – Buikwe District.
Having successfully completed enumerator training on the baseline survey tools, a team of 15
trained enumerators — comprising 3 staff from the cluster partner organizations and 12
community data volunteers — were deployed to collect data from adolescent girls and their
parents/caretakers across the selected communities.
Why does it matter?
Even though human trafficking is rampant globally, it’s often unnoticed, misunderstood, and overlooked. Some people don’t even know it exists when in fact, it’s the fastest growing crime, enslavingmore than 50 million people today.
Without recognition of this crisis, communities are left uneducated, victims are left invisible, and the cycle of exploitation is strengthened. Awareness is where this starts to change. Awareness is where ending human trafficking begins.
Around the world today, people, organizations, and communities are shining a light on the truth that modern slavery exists and requires us to act. We can’t stop with visibility. Today is the day to put your awareness into action.
The project aims to address the problem of prostitution in Uganda specifically in Jinja and
Buikwe districts. Since the early 70s, prostitution has grown to be a huge problem in these
districts due to the lack of job opportunities, marketable skills and the poor educational
background of women in Jinja and Buikwe. Consequently, women end up trapped in
prostitution in order to survive. These women often come to Buikwe and Jinja with a hope
of a better life but because this area has few decent job opportunities, the only available
jobs are in bars, selling alcohol, karaoke dancing and sex. As a trial they opt to do it for just
a while. But most of them end up with unwanted pregnancies, HIV, raped, addicted to
drugs and alcohol hence losing their hope, their self-respect and dignity. Thus, the vicious
cycle begins as prostitution becomes their only means of survival, a way of life to support
their addiction and their children who in turn live in the same environment where their lives
are debased. They are rejected by their communities and families while poverty dictates
their worth and future. These women now living in prostitution face insurmountable
challenges, poverty, violence, abuses, and shanty living quarters, financial unpredictability
and poor to non-existing family life for their children. For those who have children, their
babies and toddlers are cared for by other people and most of the time by neighbors. The
older ones are left to fend for themselves with the risk of becoming street kids. Because of
that environment the children tend to lack discipline, have poor mother to child
relationships, and have no father figure in their lives and to have suffered abuses from their
mothers or from those responsible for their care. The biggest concern for the children who
are growing up surrounded by violence, drugs, alcohol and abandonment is that they in turn
become part of that environment. Yet with all these insurmountable needs in Jinja and
Buikwe district, there are currently no organizations apart from the BTRMU at work with
women in prostitution. All the above has brought about a moral decadence in the
community that in turn has also attracted young girls to drop out of school and end up in
the trade. This has necessitated the need to address the problem through preventive
measures.
There is community stigma against women in prostitution believing that they deserve what
comes to them and believe they have brought it upon themselves, making them vulnerable.
They cannot easily access services like counseling, community education and they are not in
the target group of the community.. Even the community leaders do not act as advocate
because of how they prejudge the women in prostitution. The center will help bridge this
gap between the women and the leaders. Through this initiative, the local community
leaders including the pastors and the health facilities personnel will have a chance to see
the need to do something about this cause.
Buikwe Touch Rehabilitation Ministries Uganda Limited is a rehabilitation organization based in the Buikwe/Jinja area, dedicated to empowering at-risk women, children, and youth. It focuses on fostering healthier lifestyles, providing community reintegration, and restoring dignity to vulnerable individuals, often through counseling and support services.
Key Details about Buikwe Touch Rehabilitation Ministries:
The organization works towards social reintegration and provides specialized care for vulnerable groups in the region
BTRMU was founded in 2007 by Mary Zema who began working with nine women from the
streets of Mbikko in Buikwe district. She would take regular visits down to the women
working at bars, spend time with them, talking to them, getting to know why they ended up
in prostitution and working with them toward a life out of prostitution. BUIKWE-TOUCH REHABILITATION MINISTRIES UGANDA, (BTRMU)
is situated in Mbikko (Buikwe district), a semi urban township just outside of Jinja a town
about 80 km from Kampala, Uganda. Mbikko is one of the main stopovers in Uganda for
long distant drivers who come with a lot of money with the aim of spending it on alcohol
and women. It has also become well known as a place for drugs, alcohol and most especially
prostitution. Every year, many young women and girls come to Jinja and Mbikko with the
aim of making money for themselves in an honest way. Unfortunately due to the lack of job
opportunities in the area, many women are unable to earn enough money to support
themselves, and as a result they fall into the trap of prostitution. Their vulnerability to
falling into prostitution is heightened by the high number of bars and loose morals in the
region – and as this is one of the few ways women can earn a living they find themselves
being forced, coerced and deceived into prostitution.We are here to change the narrative.
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