Blogs from Uganda, Africa - page 5

Some people have asked me about how COVID affected Uganda. Grab a coffee; this is a long post! The restrictions places on the people were very harsh with both short and long term effects. On Monday March 18th 2020 was when lockdown truly started for Uganda. On that day, an immediate and strict lockdown was put in place: no public transport, no boda (motorcycle) taxis, closure of all non-essential shops and businesses, schools and a 7:00pm to 6:30am curfew. When Hope’s son Robin was sent home from boarding school she was not permitted to go and get him (2 hours away). Instead Robin stayed with his grandmother for almost 6 months. But, what happened to the children that didn’t have a family member close by? Residents could only work if they could walk to their essential ... read more

I spent the weekend in Jinja which is the source of the Nile and the adventure capital. Hope and Irene joined me for the weekend, which was a blast. We started in Kampala where we met with a great fashion designer: Josephine Nakafeero who has Jose House of Creations. She has created a successful small business and plans to speak to our women this month to share her story with them. Before we hit the road I had my first frozen yogurt since I got here and it was great! Jinja is only about 1.5 hours away from Kampala, however it is hard to describe how bad the traffic is. It is the busiest road in the country because it is the access point to the surrounding countries: Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. There can be a ... read more

Today we had a big rainstorm in the morning so I finally got to wear the sweater I brought! We worked from home in the morning knowing the roads would be a mess. I sat on the front porch watching the rain while I did some work from home and created lesson plans for tomorrow's tailoring class. In the afternoon we met with our older group of women. One by one they went over their homework of a S.W.O.T. analysis of their business, or desired business. Using that information they then shared their goals for their business. We found an unfortunate theme for both weaknesses and threats: controlling husbands. Some of the women didn't even fill out the homework, only verbally shared it because they didn't want their husbands to see it. The husbands either take ... read more

On Friday I went to meet with Days for Girls who’s office is outside of Kampala, the capital. This is a non-profit that was started in 2008 in the US. Their focus is period poverty: how many days of school or work would you miss each month if you didn’t have access to proper menstrual supplies? It started with kits being made in the US and brought to those in need by humanitarian groups. DfG is now trying to change their model where the kits are made by women in the countries that they are used. Then the kits are purchased by donors and distributed through schools and villages. Based on the cost of supplies here, the kits can be purchase for $7000 to $10,000 shillings ($2 to $3 USD). The kits are very necessary to ... read more

Some people asked more about where I am staying. I am staying with Hope, the executive director of RWO. She used to live closer to the office in Kitala, but 8 months ago she moved about 10 mins east to Namulanda. We stay off of the main Entebbe Road that connects Entebbe (the old capital) to Kampala (the new capital). I am about a 20 min Boda ride to Entebbe so we spend more time there. Then depending on traffic, I am about a 30-60 min drive to Kampala. There is so much traffic in Kampala that I am not disappointed that I ended up staying farther from there than I expected. Namulanda is a little quieter that Kitala and offers a second bedroom for her son. Hope is renting a guest house that is on ... read more