Uganda (MNN) — Over 700,000 girls in Uganda under the age of 12 have never gone to school. The high school statistics are even worse. Only one in five Ugandan girls make it past eighth grade.
Especially in Uganda’s northeastern region of Karamoja, women and girls face marginalization in several areas.
Mark Luckey, executive director of Every Child Ministries explains, “This is a culture that does not value girls and does not value girls’ education particularly. So the girls are the first ones that miss out on education.”
ECM serves the Karamojong people with farming and community development programs — all rooted in the Gospel.
(Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)
Luckey says when they noticed the challenges facing girls, “We started to work with families and with girls to help them get some training. Let’s say they go to the school to learn to work in a hotel [or] a hospitality kind of service…. Then they can get a job to help support their family.
“We’re working with girls to help them but also to show the community that God values those girls. They’re important and their education is important. [We want] to help them see that there’s worth in all of their children, not just the boys.”
ECM’s program for girls in Karamoja is still fairly new. However, they want to see it grow to help more Karamojong girls and women embrace their value in their communities and in Christ!
If you’d like to support ECM or learn more about the ministry, visit ECM’s website here.
“We could expand [the program]. We could do a lot more if we had enough funding for it,” says Luckey. “Right now it’s moving along but there [are] so many more girls and families that could be helped if we had more funding for that.”
Please pray for Karamojong girls to ultimately find their value and worth in Jesus.
Header photo courtesy of ECM.
