A conversation with Immaculate Mukasa, Team Lead at the Mentoring and Empowerment Program for Young Women (MEMPROW) on their journey to help girls in Uganda find their voice, their power, and their purpose.
Since 2008, MEMPROW has been walking alongside girls and young women in Uganda, helping them build confidence and step into their voice, choice, and power. Founded by Dr. Hilda Tadria after research revealed university women were quietly enduring intimate partner violence and planning their futures around marriage rather than their own ambitions, MEMPROW was created to intervene early, before those expectations took hold.
Today, the organisation reaches secondary and primary school girls, child mothers, survivors of sexual violence, and out-of-school youth across Kampala and five districts in the West Nile region, meeting each girl exactly where she is.
A Whole-Community Approach
What sets MEMPROW apart is its refusal to work in silos. Rooted in the socio-ecological model, the programme engages not just the girl, but her entire world; parents, teachers, community and cultural leaders, and boys. Schools and communities receive tailored audits. Everyone is invited to ask: what do we want for our girls, and what needs to shift to get there? The ripple effects speak for themselves: male teachers trained in gender awareness have changed how they treat their wives at home; police officers supported through trauma have become better equipped to help survivors seek justice.
Stories That Keep the Work Going
The MEMPROW Girls Network; the peer mentorship alumni community, is perhaps the most powerful proof of impact. Sarah, met as a 12-year-old in secondary school, is now a law graduate and board member of FIDA (the Federation of Uganda Female Lawyers). Another girl, a survivor of sexual violence who returned to school as a child mother, recently passed her national exams with distinction. The network recently won a grant from the African Women’s Development Fund to extend peer mentorship to universities not yet reached by the programme. The girls have become the movement.
Three Lessons That Have Shaped the Work
After nearly two decades, the MEMPROW team carries three enduring lessons. First: transformation is possible. Once a girl revalues herself, she is unstoppable. Second: culture can be challenged, when people are helped to see the benefit of change. Their work with the Alur Kingdom in West Nile has evolved into a kingdom actively promoting girls’ education and reducing harmful marriage practices. Third: wellbeing is foundational. You cannot ask someone to hold space for others if they are not first held themselves. Psychosocial support is now woven into every layer of MEMPROW’s work for the girls, the community change agents, the teachers, and the police.
With a team of 17 and a commitment to going deep rather than wide, MEMPROW is proof that sustained, relationship-centred work creates lasting change. We are proud to have them as part of the AFWAG network and we celebrate every girl who has found her voice through this programme, and every girl still waiting to be reached.
