SELAFUG

Support to victims of forced and child marriages in Uganda through medical care, rehabilitation and rescue mechanisms.

SELAFUG, Social Empowerment and Legal Aid Foundation, is a Ugandan organisation working to provide legal aid services to people in underprivileged situations. SELAFUG seeks to promote children’s rights and to prevent child sexual abuse and child marriage through sensitisation, awareness raising, and advocacy.

The support covers three aspects:

Medical care: this includes treatment to victims e.g. those with fistula, antenatal & postnatal care where necessary, physical injuries and other complications that may have been caused due to early or violent marriages.

Rehabilitation: this includes counselling and guidance to enable victims to lead a free, confident and successful life after being ‘rescued’.

Rescue: includes taking the offenders to Courts of law so as to release the victims or to maintain children born out of such marriages. It also consists of teaching the victims income earning skills like sewing so as to be able to sustain themselves. And organising a toll free public phone/line where victims can call for help.