Airtel Uganda, through their television series ‘Together We Can’ recently reached out and offered assistance to Pelletier teenage mothers’ foundation, a program that takes care of teen mothers, and Cherish Uganda, an organization that advocates for the cause of the orphaned and vulnerable children focusing mainly on the HIV+ child.
Pelletier teenage mothers’ foundation takes on 50 teenage mothers with their babies for a 12-month period, enrolling them in various skills’ trainings which include hair dressing, bakery and tailoring so as to teach them how to support themselves and their babies. This program also helps the young mothers start up small businesses and has, over the last 4 years, enabled over 150 teenage mothers to become small business owners. Due to challenges such as lack of accommodation, domestic violence, poverty and sexual abuse, this program has a 70% completion rate with about 15 of the 50 mothers dropping out in the course of the year.
Cherish Uganda is an organization that advocates for the cause of the orphaned and vulnerable children focusing mainly on the HIV+ child and aims to enrich the health of high-risk communities by providing care for children and caregivers, especially those living with HIV, and empowering local healthcare workers through education and training.
Presently Cherish Uganda effects its work through three major arms; Akaloosa Village; which comprises of 7 homes to 50 HIV+ children; Cherish Primary School where the children from the homes are educated; and Hope Hospital which aims to be a community centre reflecting the core principles of health, healing, hope, and love. Challenges such as lack of special care for the HIV+ children and inadequate funding are still being faced, even as the organisation continues to invest in projects such as piggery, poultry and farming in a bid to become financially independent.
Under their ‘Together We Can’ initiative, Airtel Uganda reached out to these two organisations in an attempt to provide them with tools and funds to enable them to continue helping the communities in which they exist.
Cherish Uganda received bicycles, school bags, bottles, clothes, shoes and toys for the young children and Pelletier teenage mothers’ foundation received equipment such as sewing machines, zippers, tape measures, scissors, driers, sinks and shower caps to support the school’s hair dressing and tailoring classes so as to enable them to continue empowering the young mothers in the community.
‘Together We Can’ is a 52-part TV show created by Airtel Uganda to explore a range of issues currently being faced by Ugandans, including poverty, health and education challenges. Focusing on self-service, each episode shows a Ugandan silent hero who is working to improve the status of the community in which they live and ends with the ultimate celebration when Airtel Uganda awards them with prizes that enable them to further impact the community in which they live.