According to ILO, majority of Africa’s working age population is unemployed with women cited as the worst victims. In Uganda, the National Planning Authority indicates that every year, a total of 700,000 youths enter the job market yet only 90,000 jobs are available, this means that 87% of job seekers are not able to access employment. In an effort to intervene in addressing this situation, BLA’s interventions specifically empowers  Girls and Women through mentorship, skilling, discipleship and Market access

Also, according to a survey by Global Dreams Index, half of the world’s female population have given up on their dreams and are not happy with their current lives for reasons such as gender inequality, lack of support resources, and self confidence, among others.  This is typically the situation among girls and women in Africa and Uganda in particular. The Young Girls and Women that we specifically target and work with as BLA are from grassroots communities and slum urban areas, their families have little or no income.  As such, these young women are struggling with various limitations. Many of them are school dropouts, many are teenage mothers as a result of dropping out of school, many are single mothers because often times, these young girls are impregnated out of defilement, rape and trade sex in a bid to earn some income for themselves and their families. And the men responsible for these pregnancies are usually very irresponsible and jobless.

These young women and girls are going through identify crisis. Their dreams have been shattered, they have lost hope and are just struggling through life, burdened with children to feed, clothing, rent, school fees, medical bills etc.  In order to survive, majority of these girls are engaging in odd jobs which are putting them and their children at risk.