Women on the Rise

Between May 25th – 28th, Children of Uganda’s (COU) staff visited 20 selected families in Kyotera and Rakai to examine their current income generating activities (IGAs) and assess how to improve outcomes.

A two days’ training in IGA management was then held at Sabina Primary School to educate COU guardians in their respective businesses/enterprises. The participants received training in managing and profiting from a business. They were taken through business planning, setting targets, business records keeping, customer care and managing business expenses.

COU’s team also recently visited the newest Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) named “God Bless Us” (GBU). This group operates in Kisaasi, Kampala district. The members were very enthusiastic about their organization and promised to follow the constitution they have formulated. They vowed never to allow any member to violate the rules. They showed great love and commitment towards the group and thanked COU for initiating it.

The primary goal of Family Empowerment is to position our guardians so that they can ultimately handle the general welfare of ALL their children (not just those who are sponsored), including meeting basic needs of healthcare, food, education and shelter. The 100 Women Club is helping our guardians achieve this and more. Here are just a few recent success stories:

1. Cissy Nakidde was fully supported by The 100 Women Club to start-up her own shoe shop and is really doing well. She was able to expand to clothes from the very first profit she earned and has since attracted more and more customers to her shop. Cissy’s profits have increased exponentially and this has enabled her to put all 4 of her children in school.

2. Jane Nabwire now runs a successful, small-scale restaurant. She was supported with capital and assets including a blender, chairs, fridge and plates for her restaurant. Jane is seeing a drastic change in her lifestyle since she can easily provide for her other children’s school fees and requirements – which was never the case before.

3. Eva Nantanda received capital to purchase pesticides, fertilizers and seeds for her garden a year ago. She has since planted sweet potatoes, beans, maize, cassava, banana suckers, pumpkins, egg plants and sour berries. After her first harvest, she reinvested money back into the garden, bought 2 piglets and also constructed a pig sty. Now, Eva owns 6 pigs, runs a vegetable stall solely from her garden output and she also deals in fish trading. She is an active member of a COU VSLA and has been able to save UGX 10,000 ($3) as the maximum share every week. The funds are shared out annually in December and from her recent savings, she has started constructing rental houses. She fully provides her son Moses with all of his school requirements.

4. Jenesta Nakedde was equipped with farm implements, quality seeds, fertilizers and some maintenance support to increase her production capacity. In the first season, her output tripled. She harvested 350 kg of beans – keeping 200 for the family and selling the remaining 150 kgs (of which she earned UGX 300,000/=$78 USD). She also started a coffee garden with 180 quality coronal coffee seedlings provided by COU and used her savings to buy an extra 30 seedlings. She expects to have her first coffee harvest in two years from the planting date of September, 2017. Thanks to The 100 Women Club, Jenesta now has food security for her family and the ability to pay her children’s school requirements.

Join The 100 Women Club today or contact pamela@childrenofuganda.org with questions. Thank you!