This is another ‘unsolvable’ problem. According to government statistics, 60% of girls in western Uganda are forced to marry someone they don’t love. Since polygamy is legal in Uganda, girls as young as 12 or 13 are dragged away from their homes and become the third or fourth wife of a much older man. In many countries, we talk about inequality of women (and we should); In Uganda, the issue is not inequality, it is a lifetime of human abuse and slavery.
Meet Prever
Prever is a 14-year-old girl in one of the villages Ourganda has adopted. Her twin brother never worries about being torn away from his family and forced into a life of abuse and slavery, but she does. Or more correctly, she used to.
Here’s how Ourganda tackles forced marriage. Our local leaders gave us a list of behaviors and practices that ‘tie people’s hands’. In collaboration with a Uganda law firm, we created a legal document called the Family Agreement that addresses those behaviors.
Family Agreement Parties
Vincent, Esther, and others conduct Family Agreement signing parties in our villages for married couples. The couples listen, discuss and ask questions. Once they understand what they are agreeing to and they feel ready, they voluntarily pledge to disrupt and replace the very behaviors that crush individuals, families, and communities. Line 5 of the agreement says, “Girls decide whom to marry and when. They are never forced to marry anyone and they are never sold.”
In 2025, 365 couples agreed with their signatures that all property is owned equally by husband and wife, they will resolve differences with words instead of weapons, the girls in their family decide when to marry and to whom—and six other transformational behaviors.
View the Family Agreement.
Over 1,200 girls are safe
At first, no one knew if anyone would sign it. Since 365 couples have signed, and the average family in the Bundibugyo District has 3 or 4 girls, approximately 1,200 girls (including Prever), who were formerly terrified and vulnerable, are now free to determine their own future. That number increases every time a Family Agreement party is held!
The Ourganda way of solving problems
All the ingredients are already present. Ourganda simply organizes the volunteers into protection teams, builds strong relationships with government authorities, then connects everyone in a powerful system that deters anyone who values his freedom.
Because of Ourganda, hundreds of village and government leaders across Bundibugyo District have achieved collective efficacy, the conviction that systemic change can happen. Communities everywhere are being equipped to protect their own.
This isn’t charity. This is transformation.
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