Blogs from Uganda, Africa - page 4

Friday morning was our monthly meeting with all of the community leaders, mentor parents, and peer mentors. The updates started with Madam Abby who is a very impressive mentor parent. She gave a 4 page report on her group including details about each member and many of the goals that the women have in her group. This includes the saving group they have started so they can have capital for their business goals. After Abby we heard from another group that is still struggling with how they can engage with RWO. Most of her questions were related to what RWO would give her members once their lessons were completed. Before RWO could answer, Madam Abby answered for us: RWO is giving you the biggest gift you can ask for: an education. When you educate a women, ... read more

One Thursday morning we had our final tailoring class that will be with me. On Monday they have a trainer from the area starting with the ladies. She will be with them 3 days a week for 6 months so I expect they will be very good seamstresses by the time the course is done. I had my first experience with paying off a police officer this morning. We were coming back from Entebbe to the office and we admittedly turned where we should not have. The police office took their ID and said they could come back later to pay their ticket. So instead they got out with 20,000 shillings (~$5 USD) and gave that to the officer. At that point he said just be more careful next time, returned the ID and we were ... read more

Today was my last Monday morning meeting with the ladies. They have an additional volunteer, from the area, that joined the team this week. She is going to focus on results based reporting which will be helpful to Hope when she works on grant applications. The other volunteer, Kanifa has been helping with grants as well and just completed one related to the need for safe abortions. Uganda has high maternal mortality with unsafe abortions being one of the major causes. Young people are particularly vulnerable to unsafe abortion with the addition of sigma associated with premarital sex and pregnancy. Under current law, abortions are illegal unless the woman’s life is at risk, she has HIV, or a few other conditions. But, the laws and policies surrounding abortion in Uganda are unclear and are often interpreted ... read more

On Thursday morning the women were back for their tailoring class. Their new trainer starts the first of March and since they have been enjoying knitting so much we decided to stick with it. The group has created a great bond with each other, they vary in age from ~16 years old to late 50s so there is great conversations that happen. There is a lot of laughter such as one of the women laughing at me when I told her she was doing a great job even though she did not agree with me ? I can pick up bits of their conversation when they throw in English words or someone translates for me. They can be talking about anything from managing their husbands to business ideas that they have. Thursday afternoon was my last ... read more

I previously shared that being a twin in Uganda comes with a lot of tradition so I thought I would share a little more about it. When twins are born in additional to their given name they have a word added so people know they are a twin. As the younger girl twin I would be Nakato Sarah. Emily would be called Babirye Emily. Then the parents also have a word added in front of their name so people know they have twins. Nalongo is the mother of twins and Salongo is a father of twins. Sibiligs of a twin are also given a word in front of their name based on birth order. The main reason for this naming structure is so that others know they are or related to a twin. It is believed ... read more