Our Story
Femlead was created as a response to the startling change in the aspirations of young girls after they left Healing Focus Orphanage Centre (HFOC) Primary School.
The Healing Focus Orphanage Centre, a Ugandan NGO, was started by Tom and Esther Bagoole to advance education and to relieve the extreme poverty and sickness of local orphaned children.
After completing the HFOC education and having received excellent exam results, the girls in the district of Busiiro were confident and expressive with high hopes of pursuing professional careers.
However after 4 years of secondary education the same girls had either graduated feeling unintelligent and worthless or had dropped out altogether.
Somewhere during those years they had lost confidence in themselves and no longer had any expectation of further education or independent achievement.
Esther Bagoole, co-founder of HFOC Primary School and managing director of Femlead, decided to find out what had caused such a disappointing change. She wanted to ask the girls themselves what had happened and what could be done to regain their ambition and reach their full potentials.
In order to answer some of the questions raised, Esther planned and conducted a pilot workshop for the girls in Busiiro Secondary School.
Disturbed and motivated by what she learned, she set about preparing a series of workshops with the support of 3 independent feminist women from France, the UK and the Netherlands – Maggie Scott, Liza Cody and Jessie Gordon.
5 years later we are a registered NGO
Now more than five years later the first workshop has grown into the establishment of Femlead as a registered NGO providing a collection of vital life changing activities, including quarterly workshops.
Femlead helps young women discover their full potential by presenting them with the life skills and basic knowledge they need to build their character and achieve their goals in life.
growing support systems and creating community amongst women
The workshops have been structured to show the girls how to develop day to day support systems and therefore a sense of community amongst themselves. This helps them combat abusive situations and challenge anyone who misuses a position of authority.
We are also working in the community to educate and support parents and guardians, seeking to create a cultural shift of attitude towards the Girl Child.