St. Philomena Women Development Association is a grassroots non-profit organization registered in
Uganda in 2018. Our mission is to empower adolescent girls and young women socially and
economically.
Our activities aim at improving their welfare in western Uganda especially in Rwenzori region where
women face many challenges in relation to development.
The founders of our organization from the catholic faith, were raised in poverty during the early 1996s
during ADF insurgency. At that time, it was common for children to drop out of school due to HIV/AIDS
and other related factors. Unfortunately, women and girls were not given the same priority for education
as boys, resulting in many of our founder female peers leaving school as early as age ten and becoming
mothers shortly after their first period.
Due to financial reasons, they dropped out of school, which made it harder to escape poverty.
Poverty restricts girls and women from accessing resources and services, like employment, education,
and SHRP information, leading to domestic and gender-based violence.
In response to this situation, the St. Philomena Women Development Association was born in 2018 to
raise voices of women and empowering them to overcome the high poverty levels.
St. Philomena Women Development Association’s headquarters are located in Lhuhwahwa, Kasese-
Uganda at P.O.Box 250 Kasese, Uganda.
