Many people out there especially girls and teenage mothers desire to live a good life,  get adequate health care,  get a good education, and in the future achieve successful lives.

However, this is not possible for some of them because they come from high-risk families where their parents are very poor, some are orphans,  others abused  and others abandoned children. 

Milly Nassolo  aged 29 a lawyer by profession and   Director for Legal and women Affairs at Maisha Holistic Africa Foundation says that she started the foundation in 2015  with the aim of serving vulnerable children and women since she is also a children and women’s activist.

Nassolo  says that she started this foundation in  Kagadi district in particular because it's where she was working at the time.

She saw that the people there fitted very well in the aim of the foundation.

Nassolo with some of the girls showing off the re- usable sanitary  pads they had recieved from her

‘’I  work with local leaders, spiritual leaders, education entities and medical personnel to effectively be enable help desiring groups receive the  foundation’s services.  We also go to various schools and educate girls about menstruation and teenage pregnancies.

 During the Covid holiday when schools were closed, we  used to  go to communities where we educated the girls in the same. Now that the schools have reopened, we  started  educating  them again on the same.

 We’re based on a Biblical and Christian foundation because we believe that God is the source of all life and Jesus Christ His Son is the solution to the world’s health, social, economic, and spiritual problems.

Among the services offered include   counselling   to teenagers, teenage mothers and women    about human trafficking and modern day slavery.

 These days many teenage mothers are opting to go to  the Arab  continent especially mid-East   countries to work  and get money but many of them have turned out  to be slaves through trafficking’ Nassolo says 

Funding  of the organization is got  through  doing professional work as advocates, through farming  and  through friends and well-wishers both in Uganda and  abroad. 

Challenges

Now that  Covid- 19  had left students out of school for a long time this  increased  teenage pregnancy rates and school drop outs.

 When  schools  re-opened, there  were not   many waiting to return to school as before.

 However, many teenage mothers  are  craving   for a chance to continue with  their education which of course raises the amount of funds required and educating  them   may be impossible due to the worsening condition of the country’s economy still due to the pandemic.

Achievements

‘Iam happy that I have  empowered  over 1000 young women through activism and awareness on matters that make them vulnerable.

I have supported  hundreds of young women through life and making education possible for them.

The organization was able to start up Maisha Kindergarten and   Primary School   to  educate young  children from vulnerable poor families which now has  400 kids who study from  nursery to primary six under the scholarship of Miasha  foundation,’ Nassolo says