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  • $49,935
  • Uganda

Share Child Opportunity Eastern and Northern Uganda

Share Child Opportunity Eastern and Northern Uganda

Share Child Opportunity Eastern and Northern Uganda (SCOEN) is a women-led organization, founded in 2010 to address the violence against women and children. The organization provides holistic education and economic empowerment programs with the goal of promoting gender equity and opportunities for girls to grow as leaders. SCOEN also implements specific programs focused on ending child-marriage which take a multidisciplinary approach to  address the range of factors that contribute to child marriage. 

Child marriage remains a persistent problem in Uganda. According to Girls Not Brides, 34 percent of Ugandan girls are married before the age of 18, and 7 percent are married before the age of 15. In contrast, 6 percent of boys are married before the age of 18, highlighting a stark gender disparity.  Economic challenges within families is a key driver of these rates as parents often marry their girls at an early age because they are unable to care for them and due to incentives such as dowries.  As a consequence, many girls find themselves unable to complete their education and gain access to income-generating employment opportunities. SCOEN is committed to disrupting these trends and ending the resulting cycle of poverty which perpetuates  vulnerabilities for girls and young women. 

The Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund will support SCOEN’s Girl Parliaments project, a leadership development initiative focused on ending child marriage by strengthening girls’ advocacy skills. This project includes a peer-education model in which girls share their learnings with classmates and other peers to raise awareness about girls’ rights and the dangers of child marriage. The organization will also offer girls the opportunity to participate in community forums, enabling girls to practice leadership skills such as public speaking. Additionally, the organization will train facilitators for community outreach sessions, which will encourage dialogues among parents, local leaders, and other key stakeholders to change social norms regarding child marriage. 

SCOEN will directly engage 120 girls through its Girls’ Parliament project. The organization also expects to reach 3,000 parents through its community outreach sessions, which will be held in 15 schools across the Bukedea district of Eastern Uganda. Through this project, SCOEN hopes to showcase the power of girls and combat social norms and attitudes which seek to diminish girls’ agency and capabilities. To learn more about SCOEN, please visit the organization’s website and social media pages:

See more projects: Africa, Child Marriage, Leadership & Life Skills Development