Child-headed households in Mityana District, Uganda

Background Child-headed households are a reality the rationale for this specific effort arose from the desire to get a better understanding of the magnitude of the child-headed household problem in Mityana. The total... [ view full abstract ]

Background
Child-headed households are a reality the rationale for this specific effort arose from the desire to get a better understanding of the magnitude of the child-headed household problem in Mityana. The total population of Mityana District according to the 2002 Population and Housing Census was 265,994 of which 132,989 are males and 133,005 females with a 2.8% growth rate. The total number of households was 61,406 and average household size was 4.4. More than 60% of the population are under 18 years of age, of which children below 8 years are estimated at 90,969. Of these, 46,017 are between 0-4 years.
Facts
Globally, in 2010, 152 million young workers live in households that are below the poverty line (US$1.25per day) comprising 24% of the total working poor of which 12.5% are a categorization of youth in child headed households, GCHI study shows that the high rates of unemployment discourage youth from getting married because they won’t have enough means to build a family. In late 2011 Uganda’s youth unemployment rate was at 83% this calls from urgent interventions from all the stakeholders in our country.

Conclusion
Many children in Mityana are living in poverty and hunger, exacerbated by the AIDS epidemic, which has had a serious impact in Mityana where my own Giving Children Hope Initiative (GCHI) operates a couple of years back GCHI carried out a study on child headed households in the end we recognised very strongly that the existence of CHHs is a reality and shows that priority needs of these children include shelter, food, and reliable source of income, education. It is dedicated to the hundreds of child household heads who have exhibited enormous energies and resilience in providing care and protection for themselves and siblings despite the high youth unemployment levels in Uganda.