PISCCA Project is an initiative funded by French Embassy in Uganda bringing local based organizations to embrace creative feminists and intergenerational movement geared towards changing mindset of people about harmful pratices mostly advocating for cessation of gender based violence cases in distinguished communities.
This is set to ensure quick fix of GBV victims through economic empowerment becomes successful. Vulnerable groups, such as the very poor, women and marginalized communities can often lack the skills and confidence to engage in community decision-making. It may therefore be important to support mechanisms designed to specifically target marginalized groups in order to ensure that they can participate. It is argued that participation in intergenerational movements can empower victimized people to engage in public collective actions.
The goal of this project is to ensure that orphans and other vulnerable persons, gender based violence victims mostly teenage pregnant girls and child mothers live safe, healthy and productive lives by designing and implementing program interventions that shall lead to self-sustaining communities.
Primary aims are to prevent gender based violence through changing the mindset of the community on GBV and harmful pratices.Improve income and employability of teenage pregnant girls and child mothers. Increase knowledge and behavioral change among 500 people including stakeholders like parents, guardians, traditional leaders, government leaders and care takers.
To support teenage girls and child mothers to access GBV referral services and retooling of twenty change agents and give them power to campaign and advocate for gender equality and zero tolerance to gender based violence.
Besides the project is aimed at enhancing gender equality among the target communities by empowering and lifting social economic and employment status of women.
Secondly to promote sustainable community development projects through capacity building of women, orphans and vulnerable children and other marginalized groups of in communities of Uganda.
To promote psychosocial support and capacity building of women, OVCs, HIV/AIDS infected and affected as well as other category of refugees.
Challenges being responded to.
Despite the existing law against Gender Based Violence, still it remains rampant in distinguished communities. The presence of violence in different homes or families is attributed to power struggle.
The increased registered teenage pregnancies were as a result of covid-19 school long lockdowns that ended up exposing young girls to people of bad will starting with relatives and those in the neighbor that took merit of their vulnerability.
The vice became so alarming with 4447 cases registered in three months from January, police 10 cases reported, 9 abortions, 19domestic violence, 10 for rape and all these in Gulu City. The cases are expected to escalate and child mothers may end up in prostitution to seek survival for their children.
Project purpose.
The project is purposed to skill 50 teenage pregnant girls, child mothers, for self-sustainability and improved livelihoods. This will redefine and restore lost hope to ensure their destined potential in fulfill life aspirations like finishing mainstream learning is achieved. Secondly, increase the knowledge on gender based violence and thus, ensures change of attitude about the practice among 500 people.
Improve employment opportunities for poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups through access to skills training on enterprise development; Empower vulnerable groups to start or improve their businesses through the new skills acquired;
Create an enabling environment for entrepreneurship through establishment and strengthening of networks of implementing social safety net services, providers of working capital, and participants from vulnerable groups. Lastly to stop harmful practices like prostitution, drug abuse and self-worthlessness leading to cases of suicide.
Contingent needs being addressed;
Reduction of high rates of teenage pregnancies leading to high level vulnerability
Combatting high levels of emotional trauma from unwanted pregnancies resulting into high rate of school drop outs.
Training identified beneficiaries who are the assessed and verified victims of gender based violence with help from Gulu City gender office to ensure startups for sustainable employment.
Advocate for the rights of discriminated and rejected teenagers and child mothers.
Empower gender based violence victims with skills
Change the mindset of the teenagers, child mothers and people’s attitudes towards the victims. Further, prevent gender based violence through mindset change.
Beneficiaries or targeted population
Teenage pregnant girls and child mothers that were victims of defilement, rape for about fifty cases.
School drop outs and victims under trauma, rejection by guardians and parents and community members
War returnees, People Living with HIV, the rural poor, refugees, out of school youth, young women and GBV victims with disabilities.
Expected outcomes
The project targets teenage pregnant girls and child mothers for the following anticipated outcomes.
Projects will skill 50 women and girls that are victims of GBV to ensure they’re able to startup businesses with direct help from the project for sustainable employability.
Project will resolve harmful practices like prostitution, unsafe abortions, and unemployment thus, saving young girls and women from irritating poverty.
Project will intervene in to improve economic empowerment of women, behavioral change of projected five hundred people key persons in distinguished communities who will act as pivot for mindset change causing multiplier effect.
50 entrepreneurs from poor, vulnerable and marginalized communities accessing training on business startup with majority receiving such training for the first time;
Established a community of practice network for information and knowledge exchange among institutions/organizations working on entrepreneurship, income generation, and livelihoods of the marginalized groups mostly victims of gender based violence like child mothers.