By Steven Enatu
SOROTI
At least a total of 449 young girls conceived in a period of April and June in Gweri Sub County Awoja Parish in Soroti District last year.
Amos Oluka, the probation and family welfare officer Soroti District revealed this in an intergenerational Dialogue meeting organized by World vision in Soroti District yesterday 3rd March 2021.
According to Oluka, the figure was revealed in a survey done by Community Integrated Development Initiative (CIDI) in partnership with Soroti District Local Government in one parish of Gweri alone.
“The study did not capture the whole District, It captured Gweri being one of the areas with a large population with many women and children in that community, and we targeted Awoja Parish in particular. We focused on both on school going, teenage mothers and those who left school,” he said.
The majority of the 449 girls are between the ages of 12 to 17 years.
He said the trend is driven by the harsh economic situation that many families went through in the outbreak of covid19 pandemic that saw family heads losing their source of livelihoods and children also being home.
“Parents and children did not get in good books with the children during that period of covid19 lockdown and because some parents failed to provide the basic needs, girl child could rely on those who could provide for them and at the end, sex was exchange,” he said.
Oluka envisaged and expressed his fear that the vice could be even worse than that if the statistic is covered for the whole District.
“It could be beyond that except that we are yet to do a survey in the entire District for cases that are not reported,” he noted.
