Betty Nanyonga has been a Tiko mobiliser for five years. She moves through the community every day, and on most weeks she encounters at least one girl who has experienced sexual violence. She does not say this to alarm. This is the reality of what’s happening in the community she lives and works in.
“I’m passionate about this job,” she says. “I love when someone is helped, when they get justice.”
On the day we meet, Nanyonga has brought a 20-year-old young woman to Bethany Clinic for a follow-up appointment.
Apio1 came to Kampala city, from an upcountry district, to live with her brother who works in the city. Like many girls who arrive here [Kampala], she came looking for something steadier. Decent work, however, is rarely immediate. In that gap, she became vulnerable.
A man she knew lured her to his home under the pretence of lending her money for her basic needs. Once there, she was assaulted by two men.
Nanyonga says she sees situations like this regularly. She says that girls are sometimes brought to the city on false promises of jobs, some of them trafficked. “It is happening a lot,” she says. “Some people deceive these girls that they will have decent work when they come here.”
The person who found Apio after the assault was a bodaboda2 rider. He called Nanyonga immediately. Bodaboda riders are often the most reliable informal network in Ugandan communities: always moving, always watching. Nanyonga says they have become important partners in her work as a Tiko Mobiliser.
She brought Apio to the clinic straight away. Treatment was arranged. A police report was filed. Apio wants justice, Nanyonga says, and the police are following up. The men are still on the run. “It takes some time,” Nanyonga acknowledges. But she is not worried about them evading justice.
Through Tiko, Apio received a dignity kit, as well as HIV screening, PrEP, counselling, and a referral for legal support. She and Nanyonga are in contact every day. On Nanyonga’s recommendation, Apio has enrolled in a part-time decoration class to build a skill she can earn from.
Nanyonga wants to expand her sensitisation work to include the parents and caretakers of the girls she serves. Mobilisers often face resistance from adults who have absorbed the myths around contraception, or who feel the shame and stigma around sex too heavily to talk about it with their children. The conversations are hard. She wants to have them anyway.
A mother herself, Nanyonga says the young women she works with teach her constantly. “Listening to them helps me understand how to improve the ways in which I serve them.”