Uganda’s social climate is the result of great poverty and a high number of health crises within Uganda’s communities. Poverty affects nearly half of all Ugandan families and is highest among children. Furthermore, children below the age of 15 accounting for 11 percent of the 1.6 million Ugandans living with HIV. Uganda’s adolescent girls are most at risk for HIV infections because their reproductive systems are not completely developed, and adolescent girls are more susceptible to HIV infection. Girls and young women find it challenging to negotiate safe sex because of gender inequality and patriarchal standards.

Uganda is also facing an education crisis. While Uganda's adoption of a universal primary education system in 1997 considerably increased access, it had little effect on quality. In the following decades, the student population tripled, and more pupils began to drop out. Only a third of pupils who started elementary school in 1997 had completed the seventh grade by 2003. Nearly half of all students are illiterate by grade 7.

The expense of school uniforms, books, stationery, and saving money becomes too much for poor families to endure, forcing children to drop out of school or driving families into debt. Many children are unable to attend school on a regular basis due to illness or homework. Children with impairments, orphans, and other impoverished children are more vulnerable to being excluded from the Uganda school system.