Teenage motherhood is a critical problem in Uganda because under the current school practice in the country, pregnant girls have to terminate their education. This directly leads to loss of socio-economic opportunities. Uganda recorded 290. 219 teenage pregnancies between the months of January and September 2021. The major contributing factor was COVID-19, which impacted a number of young people in Uganda negatively through a prolonged closure of schools to reduce community infections in the country.

There is no deliberate policy or effort to allow young mothers continue with their studies in the country. Ugandan society does not accord any status and respect to girls drop out of school.
There is lack of attention to this issue in Uganda despite satisfaction of international agreements to enable child mothers to continue their education. This misplaced girl protection ends pregnant girls’ education and reduces their future chances and severely affects their socio-economic opportunities later in life. The teenage mothers have very low educational attainment and no employable skills.

There are no strategies for inclusion and support mechanisms needed to ensure real inclusion of teenage mothers. Such exclusion from formal and informal education is subsequently reflected in the poor quality of life of these child mothers and their children.
Without appropriate skills, knowledge and support, these teenage mothers face a huge challenge in gaining employment particularly in the informal sector. Their situation is often of difficulty.
Equalization of opportunities for Girls aims to empower teenage mothers through vocational training and life skills in Uganda to enable them to obtain gainful employment.

The diversity of skills provided to the young mothers increase options that they can fall back on and life skills knowledge that is not provided in main stream schools. The vocational skills training will increase the options for the young mothers in Uganda by giving them basic grounding in capacities not routinely covered in the formal schooling system. By the end of the training, they will have somewhere to start to get an income. It will give them self-reliant skills to gain employment. The vocational skills provided will be based on income potential and availability of the job market.