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In Karamoja, too many mothers raise their children alone, and too many girls are married off before they can finish school.

Karamoja, in the dry north-east of Uganda, is the country's poorest region. More than half its people live in deep poverty, twice the national rate. Fewer than one in four women and girls can read, in a country where three in four people can.

Polygamy, cattle raids and abandonment leave many women to bring up their children on their own; the Daily Monitor reports that about seven in ten households there are headed by women. Kelementina Aleper was married off before she finished primary school. When her husband left, she kept her two children fed by selling vegetables and crushing stones in a quarry.

In 2020, a 15-year-old Pokot girl, whom UNICEF calls Agnes, ran from home with six other girls and hid at a police station rather than be cut and married off for a bride price. She went back to school and dreams of becoming a teacher. Not every girl gets away. Last year in Nakapiripirit, 14-year-old Margaret was taken out of class and married to a man of 34.

For too long these girls have been neglected and forgotten, left out of the headlines, the budgets and the classrooms. That is why a group of friends, among them Francis Musiime, started The Open Book Project: to help single mothers and vulnerable children in Karamoja, especially girls, get the education they deserve. One grant, one family, one open book at a time.

Stories and figures from UNICEF Uganda, the Daily Monitor (2024 and 2025), The Observer, Tufts University and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The people named here are not recipients of our grants.