JOY Empowerment Program

EDUCATION IS A POWERFUL FORCE IN THE LIFE OF GIRLS EXPERIENCING POVERTY.

Education reduces vulnerability to exploitation and trafficking and is a key form of prevention for JOY International. JOY International's program in Kasese is about more than just sending a child to school. Sponsorship provides safety, food, clothing, hygiene supplies, medical care, and education to girls who are most at risk of being forced into early child marriage or trafficked to larger cities. JOY International funds the education and living expenses of 37 at-risk girls in Kasese, Uganda, offering them hope for a brighter future.  JOY International’s objective in Uganda is simply that none of the girls are forced into early marriage and that each girl graduates High School and has opportunities for further education and/or a job that provides for their basic needs.

70% of the girls JOY serves in Uganda have experienced malnutrition due to extreme hunger, 35% do not live with either of their biological parents, 30% live with a single mother, and 20% have experienced physical or sexual abuse. 3 of our girls have mothers who work or have worked in the sex trade for survival, which means the daughters would be at a very high risk of doing the same thing if they did not have some sort of outside help to receive their education.

Prevention and empowerment are two of JOY International’s key pillars and both are clearly represented in the work accomplished in Uganda.