Nurse Resty Naluwooza counsels a family planning patient.

In the heart of Entebbe, Uganda, where the challenges of adolescent health are often hidden behind silence and stigma, one woman is changing the narrative: Nurse Resty Naluwooza. For over a decade, Resty has walked alongside Uganda’s most vulnerable girls, those whose dreams were interrupted by teenage pregnancy. As a Senior Nursing Officer, she’s not just a healthcare provider. She’s a mentor, listener, and fierce advocate for second chances. Resty believes:

Every girl deserves to be seen, heard, and supported. They are not their mistakes. They are our future.”

She still remembers the day she met Jane, a quiet, withdrawn 15-year-old who had just discovered she was pregnant.

She wouldn’t look me in the eye. She thought her life was over. But I saw something in her. A spark. And I knew I had to help her find it again.”

Jane had been a top student with dreams of becoming a nurse. But like many girls in her community, pregnancy meant dropping out of school, losing friends, and facing judgment from neighbors and even family. Resty says:

Girls like Jane are why I do this work. They remind me that behind every statistic is a story, and behind every story is a girl who still has so much to give.”

Nurse Resty Naluwooza

Thanks to The Challenge Initiative (TCI), Resty received specialized training to become a coach and champion for Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health (AYSRH). She now leads efforts to train peer champions who educate and support their peers, facilitate teen mother support groups that create safe spaces for healing and growth, and integrate youth-friendly services into community health systems to ensure no girl is left behind. She shared:

TCI gave me the tools. But the girls gave me the purpose.”

With Resty’s guidance, Jane joined a support group, accessed family planning, and slowly began to rebuild her confidence. Today, she’s back in school, uniform pressed, books in hand, and her dream of becoming a nurse reignited. Jane shares excitedly:

I want to be like Nurse Resty. She believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself.”

Resty’s work is part of a growing movement across Uganda:

• Nearly 350 healthcare providers and coaches trained in adolescent health
• Holistic care models like teen mother-to-mother groups, group Antenatal Care, and Post-Pregnancy Family Planning are now embedded in community health systems.

Resty’s story is one of quiet heroism, of showing up, listening deeply, and refusing to let any girl be forgotten. Through her work, girls like Jane are not just surviving. They’re thriving.

We’re not just preventing pregnancies. We’re protecting futures. I don’t want to be the hero. I just want to be the reason a girl gets her life back.”