Facing Extreme Poverty: A Nation in Need
In Uganda, socio-economic factors often push children into dropping out of school, child labour, street begging, early marriages and other forms of abuse.
- Primary school dropout rates stand at 45%, trapping individuals in cycles of unemployment and poverty. Children from households living below the poverty line are compelled to leave school and work to supplement their parents’ incomes.
- Despite the 2016 law in Uganda criminalising child labour (UBOS, 2021), 40% of children aged 5-17 are engaged in child labour, with some seen begging on the streets.
Poverty forces many children into labour, denying them a chance to learn and grow.
- Despite improvements in school enrolment, nearly 50% of children in Uganda do not complete primary school.
- Families in Uganda face daily struggles, living on less than £0.75 a day, with inadequate access to education, housing, and healthcare
The extremely impoverished population in Uganda resides in substandard and dehumanising housing conditions. - Distribution of income remains significantly skewed according to Oxfam with the richest 10% population receiving 35.7% of the national income, while the poorest 10% and 20% receiving 2.5% and 5.8% respectively.
A single mother stands in front of her retail shop with her children