Ms Joyce Awora aged 45 years, lost her child in darkness because she could not afford paraffin to light a lamp. Her son had been sick for sometim e and she could not afford to pay for his medication and with each passing day she prayed for a healing miracle from God. However, one unfortunate morning, Ms Awora woke up to find her son dead, he had passed on quietly in his sleep in the night – The deep pain in Joyce’s eyes as she narrates this story and flashes back to this unfortunate incident is evident.
Awora is a mother of seven children (three girls and four boys) and grandmother to three grandchildren). She is a farmer as well and a small-scale business woman in Buduma B village, Buluguyi sub-county, Buduma parish in Bugiri district. She is married to a man that is addicted to alcohol which has led to his abdication of his responsibility of taking care of the family, leaving all the care burden to Joyce
Speaking to UCOBAC, Ms Awora said she had only known poverty her entire life, she believes that her family was extremely impoverished to the extent that her children dropped out of school due to lack of school fees. She could not afford to provide the most basic needs for the family like food, clothing, healthcare and lighting energy. In order to survive, Ms Awora started doing casual work on people’s farms in exchange for food to feed her family.
During this time, Ms Awora became pregnant, and at the same time lactating mother.
She developed breast feeding complications and could barely feed her little baby. She also developed other reproductive health complications that required her to undergo an operation but unfortunately, that required money that she did not have. To make matters even worse, her husband abandoned her and married another woman in neighboring country – Kenya. To add salt to this unending injury, her three-year-old child sustained severe burns after falling into the fire and she could equally not afford taking him for medication.
Devastated and confused, Ms Awora decided to go back to her parent’s home where she was fortunately helped by her brother who took them both for better medical treatment at Tororo hospital. Upon recovery, she decided to go back to her marital home. Her husband returned four months later after hearing that she had fully recovered and had returned home.
The Triumph – Light at end of the Tunnel
One day Ms Awora received an invitation to attend a training but she turned it down and instead requested her husband to attend.
“I lacked the confidence to sit with other members of the community members. I could not afford any decent clothing to look presentable among others, so I decided not to go – I asked my husband to go instead” she said.
Her husband later that evening returned home very excited and advised her to attend the next meeting organized by an organization called UCOBAC. Joyce attended the next meeting and heard about what UCOBAC under the Child Development Project, was planning to do in the community especially with grassroot women in her community. Ms. Awora saw some light at the end of the tunnel and decided to attend all the subsequent meetings and trainings that she was invited to by UCOBAC. She gained a lot of knowledge and skills in women and children’ rights, business planning and management, agronomic farming practices, financial literacy through community Loans and saving schemes etc
Thriving against all Odds
After all the capacity building trainings, Joyce was provided with an in-kind grant of goats which has been rearing as an income generating activity. She reveals that when the goats have multiplied and she has sold some and used the money to construct a new house for her family, paid school fees for her children and also bought a solar panel to light her once dark house.
“This was very fulfilling because now I have light in my house and my children can read their books as other children do in my village. We are also safer with the lighting at home as we are not afraid of being attacked by snakes crawling into the house in the dark as we slept in the dark. My family life has been uplifted and the children are doing very well” she added with a wide smile on her face.
Additionally, Joyce added that when the village was faced with famine, she sold goats to buy food for her household.
Joyce also diversified her income generating activity with the profits gained and opened up a local restaurant in her village. She says this business was slow in beginning as she did not believe the community members would support her owing to her past life. She however says with the knowledge acquired from training sessions, she was had the confidence to convince her customers to support her business and also had financial skills to manage her incomes. From the proceed gained in her restaurant business, Joyce was also able to start saving in village savings and loans association.
“I am now in a better position to take care of myself as well – I can now buy body creams and look like other women in the village, I have bought clothes for myself and the children. We are no longer wearing torn clothes. I can afford proper healthcare for my children, I can also provide a good education for my children as I can now afford to buy needed scholastic materials and other requirements; I am so happy for the woman I have become thanks to UCOBAC.”
She hopes to buy a cow and iron sheets to construct a kitchen after getting dividends from the Agali Awamu Farmers saving group where she has been saving.
Challenges
Ms Awora admits that the issue of climate change is becoming her greatest challenge at the moment because they are experiencing prolonged drought which is affecting the growth of crops. She adds that school holidays hugely affect the restaurant business because she majorly depends on school going children for break and lunchtime.
Dreaming Bigger and Better
Despite the challenges, Ms Awora has a dream of expanding her restaurant business to another neighboring town called Muwayo town where she hopes to get more money because of the huge population.
She also hopes to use her experience to empower and inspire other women in her community to thrive out of poverty especially through engaging in income generation activities and adopting a saving culture, as well as adopting suitable agricultural practices that will increase food production and ensure food security in their homes
She sends great thanks to the Canadian Feed The Children (CFTC) and the people of Canada that have supported her and many other children and families through UCOBAC. She advised UCOBAC to carry out periodical monitoring on its project participants so as to track their progress and support them overcome emerging challenges.
