Yale CAS Lecture Highlights Community-Led Support for Teen Mothers
A Yale School of Nursing distinguished alumna has put the voices of teenage mothers at the center of a bold new community intervention — arguing that the young women most affected by poverty, stigma, and abandonment are also best positioned to lead the solutions.
Dr. Rose Clarke Nanyonga, PhD ’15, Vice Chancellor of Clarke International University (CIU), presented findings from a participatory design study conducted in Namuwongo, a densely populated informal settlement in Kampala located less than one kilometer from CIU's campus. The research, grounded in a five-stage design thinking framework, brought together teenage mothers, community leaders, and key informants to co-create responses to one of Uganda's most pressing public health and social equity challenges.
Uganda faces an acute teenage pregnancy crisis. Nationally, one in four girls aged 15 to 19 is pregnant or has given birth, with more than 32,000 teenage pregnancies recorded every month. The consequences are severe and compounding: 64 percent of teenage mothers do not complete primary education, and 60 percent ultimately depend on subsistence farming for survival. In Namuwongo, these statistics have faces and names — young women navigating abandonment by partners, rejection by family, and daily survival on as little as 3,000 Ugandan shillings.
What distinguished Dr. Nanyonga's approach was its insistence on listening before designing. Through focus group discussions and community dialogue, the research team uncovered not only the depth of hardship these young women endure, but the remarkable clarity of their aspirations. "We want to be assets for our communities, not burdens," one participant stated — a phrase that became a touchstone of the entire study.
From that listening emerged the B.L.O.O.M program — Building Life Opportunities for Optimal Motherhood — a multi-pronged intervention addressing financial literacy, sexual and reproductive health education, trauma-informed counseling, peer mentorship, and vocational skills training. Prototype solutions developed collaboratively with community members include Tukulire Wamu ("Let's Grow Together"), a structured weekly peer mentorship model, and Healing Huts (Akayumba Akawonya), safe spaces offering group therapy and emotional regulation support.
Universities must engage locally, intentionally, and accountably.
Dr. Nanyonga was direct about the responsibility universities carry when vulnerable communities live within walking distance of their gates. "Proximity is not equity," she noted. "Universities must engage locally — intentionally and accountably."
The research arrives at a critical moment for CIU's community engagement mission. With 78 percent of Uganda's population under age 35 and the country recording the world's highest annual population growth rate, the intersection of youth vulnerability, education access, and institutional responsibility could not be more urgent.
Next steps for the B.L.O.O.M program include expanding pilot mentorship cohorts, deepening partnerships with local health and government services, and developing digital literacy pathways that open new economic opportunities for participants. The study also calls for greater engagement of men and boys as allies in shifting community norms around shared responsibility.
For CIU, the work represents more than a research output. It is a model for what it looks like when a university takes the community seriously at its door — and trusts that community to lead.
This lecture was sponsored by the Project on Religion and Society in Africa, a program part of the Council of African Studies, and the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale.