Hello, my name is Kobusinge Melvis, and I'm a 17-year-old living with a child in Buliisa district's Kigwera south-west hamlet. Due to peer pressure from peers who weren't in school, I dropped out of school after finding out I was pregnant. My parents were unable to continue providing for me outside of school when I was 14 years old. She wanted me to finish my education, but I was unable to finish secondary school owing to a lack of information. In the home he shared with his parents, the father of my child was also a teenager.
While I was pregnant, l went through a lot and as a young mother l faced a number of challenges where l had less attention from my parents and they used to throw abusive words towards me. As a young mother, health services were hard accessing due to the fact that l had no partner and some of the health workers at the facility stigmatized whenever l went to the facility for medication. By the way i couldn't afford private health centers reason being l had no source of income and my parents hated the fact that l got pregnant.
After giving birth, my life was never the same because I had to look after my child. L tried looking for work in order to feed my child in the absence of her father. As time went, l moved to different organizations to seek information and skills that would help me move on as a teen mother.
Later that in 2021, an organization named Child Rights Development Foundation-CRIDEF came to our village for an economic empowerment that was to change many lives of adolescent girls and women. The project aimed at promoting valuable hand and entrepreneurial skills for adolescent girls and women in Buliisa district.
As me, l learnt a lot from the project where l got skills in piggery farming and formulation of a Village Saving and Loan Association with other members. After the training, our group was given a start-up capital of piglets and as well, we started saving from the profits we made from our farm.