Uganda Fact File on Children and Youth
Population: 34,612,250 (July 2011 estimate – 36th largest population in the world)
Age Structure:
- 0-14 years: 49.9%
- 15-64 years: 48.1%
- 65 years and over 2.1%
Median Age: 15.1 years (2nd youngest population in the world)
Population growth rate: 3.576% (2011 estimate – 3rd fastest growing population in the world)
- 75% of population is below 25 years
- 3rd highest population growth in the world (3.2%). Fertility at 6.9 children/woman
Population Projections:
- 65 million in 2030
- 103 million in 2050
Birth rate: 47.49 births/1,000 (2011 estimate – 2nd highest in the world)
Infant Mortality Rate: 62.47/1000 live births in one year (29th worst record in the world; compare with Singapore 2.32/1,000)
Highest dependency ratio in the world: 1:12
JANUARY 2012 THEME: Children and Youth
“Good parents give their children roots and wings. Roots to know where home is, wings to fly away and exercise what’s been taught them.”
Jonas Salk
The time of Jubilee brought in many social and economic changes that made it an exciting time for children and youth especially those who had been born in slavery. It ushered in freedoms they had only dreamt of and responsibilities they had never known existed. One can only imagine the kind of questions that came from the children:
What does jubilee mean?
- Why are we leaving this home?
- Why have you been working in this place for all these years?
- Where are we going to live now?
- Can we have jubilee every year? etc
These kind of questions required the older generation to tell stories. This month we reflect and take stock of the situation of our youth and children. It is a good time for story telling to this up-coming generation.
Commemorate:
Reflecting and looking back on your own childhood and youth:
What things bring back fond memories?
- What are the memories that you treasure the most?
- What are the difficult experiences you went through that have shaped your later life positively?
- What has been the state of children/youth in your family or organisation in the past 50 years?
- What differences are there between the life then and the life today?
- What opportunities have been available for youth and children in health, education and employment?
- What are the positives trends?
- What are the negative trends?
Celebrate:
- If you take a good look, there are things to be grateful for. Take time to think or brainstorm with others in order to overcome the natural tendency of being pessimistic.
- If you are a child or youth, make a list of the things you are thankful for in your life presently.
Contemplate:
- Looking forward, what are the areas you would like to see improved?
- What are you able to do to improve the lot of children or youth within your reach?
Jubilee Point of Action for the month:
- Plan to share with a group of youth or children in your home or community some experiences of growing up or something significant that happened in the last 50 years and your hope for a better future.
Story ideas:
- Tell your family story or some challenges you faced while growing up and how you overcame them.
- Tell the story of living through the times of wars, insecurity and scarcity in the last 50 years.
Jubilee Prayer for the month:
- Pray that the children and youth of your community will increasingly live in a society that is planning and making present sacrifices for a better future.
- Pray that the next 50 years will see a tremendous improvement in the quality of life of the youth and children of Uganda.
Jubilee Pledge for the month:
- I pledge to do all in my power to help the children and youth in my community develop to their full potential in life.