ABOUT US

WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO

Smile Again Families, Uganda is a registered non-profit CBO that supports abused and troubled teenage mothers. We support teenage mothers to re – discover their life purpose and inner-worth, lead social and economic change through psycho-social support, formal education and entrepreneurial skills trainings.
Uganda is ranked as the 9th Hot spot of child/teenage marriage in the world. Teenage pregnancy is estimated at 24% with regional variations.
This increases to 34% in the poorest households. 34.8% of the Uganda’s population are adolescents and there has been an increase of teenage pregnancies to 25% which is nearly 3 out of 10 teenage girls between 15-19 years who get pregnant or are already mothers. 1 in 10 teenage girls are married off before they are 15 years according to the ministry of health. (twitter@softpowernews Paul Ampurire, November 26th 2018).

Uganda is predominantly patriarchal society with high levels of strong negative socio-cultural stereotypes among the communities , many of these stereotypes aggravate gender inequality against girls and women. In rural areas, 24% of girls experience early pregnancy compared to 16% of wealthier households and 21% of urban girls (UNICEF, 2020).

Teenage pregnancy profoundly affects girl’s life trajectories. It hampers their psycho-social development, contributes to poor health outcomes for girls and their offspring’s, negatively affects their educational and employment opportunities, and contributes to the perpetuation of inter-generational cycles of poor health and poverty culminating to gross domestic violence for the teenage mothers.

Many of the mothers are victims of sexual abused or abusive relationships which causes the family members to throw them out because the girls can’t speak out. As Smile Again Families Uganda, we operate a safe shelter for some homeless teenage mothers and others are supported from within the community through solidarity groups.

Our creation

Smile Again Families was formed in 2015, when a Ugandan couple, Fred and Stella decided to do something about the abandonment of teenage mothers in their community. They saw the need of support for these mothers and moved towards helping them. They established their mission to provide support physically and emotionally, seeking to help these teenage mothers rediscover their worth and dream again. Now, they have served over 500 women in the past 9 years. This mission is critical for bringing hope to these communities as they equip women for economic sustainability and emotional stability.

VISION

To create strong sustainable and reliable families that will historically transform society

MISSION

To support abused and abandoned teenage mothers to discover their inner worth by restoring them emotionally, spiritually and economically.

OUR MODEL

REACH OUT

We reach out to over 200 mothers each year by seeking them out on a one on one basis in the communities through home visits, hospital referrals, faith based parish outreaches , Radio announcements and having a presence in the communities.

REFORM

We offer one on one psycho-social counseling for the victims and survivors of teenage pregnancy.

RESUSTAIN

When the mothers have reached one year after birth, our goal is for them to sustain themselves. We provide an opportunity for the sustainability.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

To sensitize the public about teenage pregnancy and enroll the teenage mothers into formation programs.
To restore hope for victims of teenage pregnancy and Socially re-integrate them into the community.
To empower the teenage mothers with self sustainable livelihood skills development.