Uganda Women's Rights Group 02.07

Where women have a voice

World Vision Communications Officer, Esther Williams, reports on a women's group that is helping to make a difference to communities by empowering women and directly addressing their own needs.

Kabale District in south-west Uganda is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes that Africa has to offer; with its sprawling hills and lush green backdrop it’s hard to believe that Uganda remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Thirty one per cent of the population live below the poverty line and 89% of the population live in rural areas. It was in the rural sub-county of Kamwezi that I stumbled upon one woman’s story of determination and hope as she works to mobilise the marginalised groups in her community to participate in development programmes that will improve quality of life and bring about lasting change.

For a woman in Kamwezi an average day can start as early as 5am, and begins with preparing food for her husband and children, before starting her long journey on foot to the field, where she will spend the next 8 to 10 hours digging and cultivating the land. If this isn’t enough, in the evening, if she doesn’t have older children, she will go and fetch the water and collect the firewood.

It therefore comes as no surprise to discover that women are often excluded from participating in any other aspect of life, their voices often going unheard. That was until 1996 when Kyabuhangwa Women in Development (KWID), a non-profit, non-political organisation, was established to empower women, equipping them with skills and teaching them to exercise their rights so they are able to effectively mobilise the development of their local communities.

Spearheading the women’s group is a lady called Kellen. I took some time out with her to find out what it is that motivates her to advocate on behalf of some the community’s most vulnerable people.

“Partnership is a powerful tool,” says Kellen. “It started with World Vision, who began a community development project in the area. I was working with them as an interpreter when I had the idea of mobilising ladies in the community. World Vision was addressing the needs of the entire community, but in the women I saw a deeper need,” she continues. “Because I was working with World Vision, I was constantly looking for opportunities to develop a women’s group.”

The opportunity came in 1996 when World Vision facilitated a women’s day for all the ladies in the parish. “I am so grateful for their support and since then we have never looked back," says Kellen. "At the moment we have twenty-five members of the group and as many as two hundred and ninety five beneficiaries, who are made up of orphans and vulnerable children, and ‘Adult Runners’ - these are women who missed the opportunity to go to school when they were young. KWID provides environments where they can learn to read and write and gain valuable numeracy skills. There are many others who benefit from the group, including elderly women who may have lost children to Aids and have no one to take care of them.”

The slogan for KWID is “Empowering women to address hindrances to their advancement.”

“The hindrances are many,” Kellen explains. "Women work far harder than they should, and ill-health is the consequence of this. There is also a lack of access to education, which has a snowball effect, as without education women are unable to find suitable employment. Currently a big concern is that women have no property rights and can often find themselves homeless without notice, when their husbands have become fed-up of them,” she continues.

“It is a huge task,” says Kellen. “But we are determined and ready for the challenge.”

Kellen’s main challenge is financial resources. Activities within the women’s group include education through music, dance and drama. The group relies on the membership fee of shs5000 (approximately 50p) and the quarterly subscription fee of shs2000 (30p) along with occasional grants from other NGOs, to provide equipment such as keyboards and projectors to facilitate these programmes as well as fund the different support groups that KWID provides for Kamwezi women. Kellen is already taking KWID into neighbouring communities and has seen some amazing results, with many of the women running their own income-generation projects after taking small loans from the group.

She is particularly proud of the Pig Project. Women have taken pigs donated by World Vision, waited for them to produce piglets, then sold the piglets for shs10,000 (£3.00) and used the income to either buy land or send their children to school.

It is success stories like the Pig Project that keep Kellen going. Seeing children who were previously unable to attend school but are now able to do so, is testimony to the fact that empowering people and giving them a voice enables them to have a choice in what quality of life means for them. This is good development practice, says Kellen, and with results like this, she is undeterred by the challenges that lie ahead.