Feel Good Friday - Women's Global Empowerment Fund

In today’s Feel Good Friday, we take a trip to Northern Uganda to visit Women’s Global Empowerment Fund.

Founded in 2007 by Karen Sugar, the mission of Women’s Global Empowerment Fund (WGEF) is “to support women through economic, social and political programs, creating opportunities while addressing inequality; strengthening families and communities.”

 

WGEF is a microfinance non-profit working in Northern Uganda, a post-conflict region recovering from a 25-year violent insurgency which left the region unstable and lacking in economic activity. WGEF helps women who were forced to become child soldiers or sex slaves during the conflict by providing economic, social and political opportunities for sustainability and self-determination. You can read stories about some of the WGEF clients here.

 

Programs run by WGEF include Credit Plus, a service that “combines microcredit services with literacy, leadership development, health initiatives and basic business education.” Since WGEF’s founding, over 10,000 women in poor or rural areas have been given microcredit loans. A subsection of these loans focus on agriculture and provide women additional training and support to plant, grow and harvest their crops.

 

The Gulu Women’s Resource Center is a community meeting space where women are provided with computer and life skills training. It also houses the Access to Justice team which addresses violence against women, gender bias and inequality by sharing information and resources and helping women file reports and advocating for them during court proceedings. 

 

Additional programs include leadership development, literacy training and my favorite, a drama festival where women create original plays focused on issues such as inequality, HIV or violence, and use them as a way to educate men and community leaders about these issues

 

Details about all of the programs can be found at this link and you can hear directly from participants about their experiences at this link. If you want to support the work of Women’s Global Empowerment Fund, make a donation and spread the word by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @wgefund.

Feel Good Friday - St. Monica's Girls Tailoring School

So far, all the Feel Good Friday posts in 2015 have focused on organizations in the United States so today we're taking a trip to Gulu, Uganda.

Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe has been the Director of St. Monica's Girls Tailoring Center in Gulu, Uganda since 2001. Her story has been transformed into a book and a documentary film, both titled Sewing Hope. The website provides this background, "For 25 years Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) terrorized Northern Uganda. They abducted children and forced them to commit atrocities against their own families and communities. Girls as young as thirteen were degraded to sex slaves for Kony's officers."

When these girls return home with their children, whose fathers are rebel commanders, they are often shunned by their communities. Sister Rosemary wanted to provide these girls a way to accept, forgive and support themselves. She made an announcement on the radio inviting all former Kony captives to come to St. Monica's for refuge and training. In the first year, 200 girls signed up and since then over 2,000 have been through the program.

She started with a sewing class for the girls and, after seeing how it boosted their self esteem, added additional classes in jewelry making. In 2012 she cofounded Sisters United as a for-profit organization to sell the products the girls were making.

Sister Rosemary was selected as a CNN Hero in 2007 (video) and named one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" by Time Magazine in 2014. You can learn more about her and the program by reading this detailed article from the Christian Science Monitor or buying the book. 100% of the net proceeds from the book go to Pros for Africa, a US based group that supports Sister Rosemary and her work at St. Monica's.

You can watch the trailer for the documentary here then stream the full movie on Netflix. If you like it, adding your comments to the page will encourage others to watch the film and learn about the work Sister Rosemary is doing at St. Monica's. It's only 53 minutes long and (having just watched it myself) very inspiring.

Finally, you can keep up with this dynamic woman by liking her Facebook page and following her on Twitter @Sister_Rosemary. That's what I'm doing!

Feel Good Friday - Global Women's Water Initiative: Update

It has been my goal to share a new inspirational story every Feel Good Friday and I've been doing it since November 30, 2012.

Today I'm going highlight an organization I first told you about in August of 2013, the Global Women's Water Initiative. Think of this as less of a repeat and more of an update. For those of you who are recent followers and/or don't keep meticulous track of this blog, you can find the original post here.

Rose Wamalwa

In brief, GWWI trains women in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to bring sustainable water solutions to their communities. Women in these countries can spend up to 8 hours a day fetching water and doing water related chores. If the water is not clean or good sanitation and hygiene practices are not followed, people in these communities suffer from preventable water borne diseases. The women involved in the GWWI program become water, sanitation and hygiene technicians, trainers and entrepreneurs. More details can be found on their website or by watching the Inspiration Safari video interview with GWWI Executive Director, Gemma Bulos. (That's new since the original post!)

Godliver Businge

Last night two of the trainers from East Africa spoke in detail about the impact their work has. Rose talked about a clinic in Kenya that could not deliver babies because they had no clean water, forcing pregnant women to walk miles to the next village to have their babies. After women trained by GWWI built two rain  water harvesting tanks, the clinic has delivered over 30 babies and the government has taken notice and provided the clinic with additional support.

Godliver told the story of a woman who spent 25 years as a commercial sex worker to support herself and her two children after her husband left her. Inspired by the training she received through GWWI, she's now a skilled mason and respected member of her community, hired to work on local water projects. In fact, 70% of the women who have participated in this program have increased their personal income.

If you're still not convinced what an awesome program this is, watch this video of the women involved with GWWI. You can keep this work going by making a donation and/or sharing this story on social media. Like the Facebook page follow them on Twitter @womenwater and do what you can to help this ripple spread!

Boomu Women's Group

Hi All,

I recently stayed at the Boomu Women's Group, in Kigaragara, Uganda to learn more about this community based tourism group and the lives of rural Ugandans. The group was formed in 1999, by Enda Byabali with the aim of fighting poverty in the area by creating economic and social development through raising the incomes of their members.

I'll be putting together a promotional video for Boomu and UCOTA (the Ugandan Community Tourism Association) to use upon my return to the US.

If you're in Uganda, I encourage you to stay at Boomu. The accommodations are some of the most comfortable I've had on my trip so far, the trees are FILLED (!) with weaver birds and their nests, the food is as fresh as the backyard and Edna will gladly teach you all about the surrounding community. Stay for a few days and learn about the local community or stay for a few weeks and volunteer your time.

If you're not planning a trip to Uganda, plan a trip to the website and shop for some crafts. You will be making a direct contribution to support this community that is working to support itself! And for goodness sakes, let them know that you learned about Boomu from Kristian at HeyMissK!

Lastly, please leave any comments about this program here so the people from UCOTA and Boomu can see them too!

Information About the Boomu Women's Group (from their website)

All our members are subsistence farmers meaning that most food that is grown is for domestic consumption and what is left is taken to the market. However in order to raise incomes, some families increase the amount they take to the market leaving themselves hungry. Income from farming, due to the low amount produced and lack of access to markets, rarely cover all the expenses people have: education costs such as secondary school fees, textbooks, and uniforms, soap, paraffin, clothes once a year and occasionally meat. For our members’ there are few alternate livelihoods in particular for women so the group was formed to provide another income stream through weaving baskets.

As the number of baskets sold is very variable, we decided to diversify our activities by setting up a small tourism project. The group brought land in the village of Kigaragara, next to Murchison Falls National Park, using 15% of the income from baskets towards this project. We built accommodation in 2004 with assistance from UCOTA (Ugandan Community Tourism Association). and received further seed funding in 2006 to furnish the bandas.

The objective for this tourism project is for it to be a participatory experience: for our group, the local community and for the visitor. The surrounding community has been involved in the development of the project and would be happy to have people visiting them, seeing their everyday life and their needs such as education that our project is trying to address. Our chairperson will be delighted to share with you everything she knows about local life, history, culture, traditions and the issues that affect us. This means visitors will directly engage with the recipients of their tourism spend and can see exactly what the impact of their stay will be.

As well as bringing economic and social development directly to our members and the local communities - plans include a nursery school for the community - we also wish to create economic development indirectly. We hope that if the project becomes successful we can inspire other people to come together and also work towards economic and social development.

Float Down My Stream of Conscience

Hey All,

A random collection of thoughts from my travel weary mind...

Favorite Ugandan Town Names:
- Bombo
- Kakooge
- Wobulenzi
- Kigaragara
- Nakasongola

Powers I Wished I Possessed:
- photographic memory and companion color printer, for everything I see out the bus window but don't have my camera ready for (my new favorite being the "Tick Hotel" in Uganda)
- ability to teleport from one location to another so I didn't have to take the bus

Last State I Thought of in My Time Killing Quest to Name All 50 (which I did):
- Wisconsin

Miss K By the Numbers:
3 - number of times I will pass in and out of Kenya
4 - number of buses I have ridden in the past 5 days
5 - shortest amount of hours spent on said buses
14 - longest amount of hours spent on said buses
27 - number of different hotel rooms, dorm beds, campsites, etc. I have slept in so far
52 - number of consecutive speed bumps placed 30 feet apart, causing the bus driver to speed-break-babump, speed-brake-babump down the road and Kristian to almost snap and jump off the bus

On Transport Cost:

$4.50 gets you a ride on Supa Coach (don't be fooled by the name) from Kampala to Masinda, Uganda. You will have to sit on the bus for 2 (to 3) hours before it leaves and over the course of the 5 hour bus ride, you will have to coordinate shifting your legs with the old woman facing you as there are 16 people in a space designed for 9 and you only fit if you alternate legs (my leg/her leg/my leg/her leg). When the bus stops, you can not get out but you can buy meat on a stick through the window. Choose wisely or like me, you will end up with a stick of grilled intestines and realize you weren't as hungry as you thought.

$30.00 gets you a ride on Akamba from Kampala, Uganda to Nairobi, Kenya. You get your own seat, the bus leaves on time and they give you samosas and juice in the morning. Though the windows don't open for food purchases, you do get a 20-minute stop for lunch and a bathroom break 7 hours into the trip at the halfway point. If your ride is more than 5 hours, I would recommend digging into your wallet for the extra cash.

On Transport Stability:

Those of you who have been in my car know she is low to the ground. An advantage of this is that I never feel like I will tip over. Get run over? Sure. Tip over? Never.

As Supa Coach raced down the road, swerving around slower cars, driving in the shoulder and leaning at what felt like 30 degree angles, I was sure we would tip. Maybe I got the idea from The Simpsons episode where the SUVs took a gentle curve and all rolled over and caught fire. Maybe these thoughts are an effect of the Larium. Maybe it's because I've seen one bus and two trucks on their sides along the roads. In any event, I'm happy to report we stayed upright the whole time.

And just so you know it's not just me. I met a Spanish woman in Masindi who said she spent most of the time on the bus praying because she literally thought she would die. Now she laughs about it. But that's now.

People, love your cars, your public transportation and your roads. You've got it good.

Keep on truckin',
Miss K

"Mama, this is Africa"

It's what the driver of the Honda-Civic sized car said to me as the 8th person (and her baby) got inside.

What, pray tell, was I doing in a car full of Ugandans, dust and body odor? Bouncing down one of the worst dirt roads in Uganda, listening to Voice of America radio on a 50 mile, 3.5 hour drive trying to make my way to Kisoro, to track gorillas. "But didn't you sign up for a safari that came with a private vehicle", you ask? Why yes, I did.

Long story short (is it really possible with me?), the 4x4 my guide was driving broke down 2 hours into the trip. We had to use a combo of taxis and matatus (14 passenger vans filled with 23 people that regulary smash into each other and kill people in Kenya) and free rides to make it, which we didn't and that left us scrambling for another permit and extending the safari by 2 days. It's been both a drag and a memorable experience.

On a good note, I did get my mzungu in the mist moment - twice!

The first tracking was to Mgahina National Park. 3 hours of hiking to find the family... once we did, we got to spend an hour following them, oohing, aahing and taking photos. As you see in this photo, I obviously didn't clear things with the gorilla's agent before snapping this picture. (the gorilla is the tiny black blob over my right shoulder) On a bit of a gorilla high, our group of 5 started walking back down the mountain - the Virunga volcano range really that is shared between Uganda, Rwanda and Congo.

We didn't even notice the first drops. But then the rain came down in a deluge, a deluge I tell you! For 1.5 hours we walked in the rain. Every time you thought it can't rain any harder, it did. At the end, I was up to my ankles in running brown water, trying to make it to the car. All this for a monkey? Oh yeah.

After a night of drying my shoes by the fire and securing a second permit - having been thrown off schedule by our delay - I was tracking again, this time at Nkuringo in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. This time, we found the gorillas in only 30 minutes - but they were hiding, well really just trying to take a nap, deep in the forest. Despite the name, the forest is penetrable, but it ain't easy. Our guides hacked away at the bushes to reveal Posho, who stared at us while we stared at him.

Not content with spotting only one gorilla (a Dutch group at our guest house had seen a group of 18 the other day - a feat not to be repeated by us) we went searching for the others under the branches and over the vines. No one tells you about the ants. You know they're there when they bite you.

Moving on. We see two silverbacks, Safari and Kisoro. I'm busy trying to take still pictures of them and don't have the video camera on which is a shame because we get charged by another gorilla. In the time it takes me to mumble "oh jesus", hit record and cower by a tree (about 2 seconds) it's over. It was scary hearing the screeching and crashing through the bush coming from the side, but in the end it was all for show - and to show us who is boss. Again the hour goes quickly.

Although it is more expensive to see gorillas in Uganda than neighboring Congo, the Uganda Wildlife Authority really does a good job of working with the local people to recognize that the tourism the gorillas bring can have a positive impact for the surrounding communities.

To those of you thinking about traveling to Uganda, I would encourage you to do it! It's been great and I wish I had more time here but I've got people to see and things to do.

Coming soon... thoughts on transportation and the Boomu Womens' Group!

Miss K

Wanawake This Way

Jambo All,

In the event you are ever on a 13.5 hour bus ride from Kenya to Uganda and you want to make sure you go into the right rest stop bathroom - and you are a woman - look for the "wanawake" sign. As I am now in a country where it is not spoken, this concludes our Kiswahili lesson for the day.

I have successfully propelled myself into a new country and have started connecting with other solo travelers, and a bunch of wanawake at that! Yesterday I went with two people I met to Ngamba Island to see the sanctuary for orphaned chimpanzees. The people who care for these animals are very knowledgeable and very passionate about promoting chimpanzee survival in the wild. The chimps are very polite, raising their hands when they want more fruit to be thrown their way at feeding time. The sanctuary and community involvement is a good response to a bad situation

Upcoming Interviews for "Dream" Footage

I'm scheduled to go back to Nairobi to interview a woman who is a marine conservationist working with a community of women on the coast of Kenya. The women collect washed up flip flops and turn them into key chains, placemats, jewelry and many other products which are then sold to people like you and me. I will interview the woman who started the company as well as some of the artists. UniquEco

I will also go back to Arusha, Tanzania to interview a man who collects the plastic bags that litter the city, disinfects them and uses them as stuffing for animals he makes. Mazingira Mokey Project

All that and I plan to visit Habitat people in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia! Hooray!

Favorite Shop Signs in Kenya on the road to Uganda:

1. "Democracy Bar And" - and what? it hurts not knowing
2. "God's Will Cafe" - think how much money you save on menus
3. "Modern Fly Cleaners" - for the modern fly

Favorite Shop Signs in Uganda between Kampala and Entebbe:

1. "Hope Medical Centre" - when medicine isn't enough
2. "Wood de Pearl" - better than pearl de wood I suppose
3. "Queen Latifah Beauty Salon" - no sign of her there but maybe it was her lunch break

In two days I leave for Bwindi to go see (hopefully) the mountain gorillas. Will definitely send pictures of those when I'm back.

Lastly, a photo of one of the many kids that see foreigners and shout "mzungu (foreigner) how are you?".

Toodles,
Miss K