The crisis facing the female population in Rwamabale Village is not a series of isolated challenges but a sophisticated recursive loop of deprivation. At the center of this loop is the systematic denial of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). In Kagadi District, the "educational haemorrhage"—the precipitous dropout of the girl child—is almost exclusively driven by reproductive health violations. One in four girls aged 15-19 in this region has begun childbearing, a statistic that signals an immediate cessation of formal education. This premature exit from the academic pipeline creates an "economic vacuum," forcing young mothers into a state of total financial dependency on male counterparts or subsistence labor.

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One of the most critical observations Patrick and I discussed during our July assessment was the recursive nature of poverty and Gender-Based Violence (GBV). We found that in Rwamabale, SRHR is the axis upon which all other challenges turn. When women lack the agency to space their births or choose when to start a family, they inevitably face a "dependency trap."

 

This financial dependency is the fuel for GBV. In many households we encountered, the lack of reproductive autonomy leaves women vulnerable to physical and psychological abuse because they lack the "exit power" provided by independent income. Furthermore, the high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity—often caused by poorly managed pregnancies in under-resourced clinics—deprive families of their primary caregivers. When a mother dies or is incapacitated by obstetric injuries, the family unit often collapses, leaving children, particularly girls, to take on domestic burdens that force them out of school, thereby resetting the cycle of poverty for the next generation.

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This cycle is further complicated by the crisis of "unpaid care work" and childcare. In Rwamabale, poverty ensures that young mothers have virtually no support system. We observed that many women are "time-poor"—they are so consumed by the rudimentary tasks of survival and the care of multiple children that they have zero capacity to engage in the labor market or attend skills-training sessions. This poor childcare environment, driven by a lack of resources, creates a secondary crisis where the next generation grows up malnourished and under-stimulated. RECI’s focus on women must, therefore, address this care burden. It is a fundamental truth of project design that you cannot empower a woman economically if you do not first address the reproductive and domestic "shackles" that keep her tethered to the home without support.