WORTH women in Uganda have a lot to celebrate

In Uganda, we've had several great success stories to share this month. Groups are reading Selling Made Simple - the third book in the Women in Business series - and are working to increase the strength and success of their microbusinesses. Having a firm handle on village banking skills, women are managing flourishing village banks and looking forward to the end of their first banking cycle when interest is calculated. Several groups have self-replicated based on the good example of formal WORTH groups in their areas.

I was on my way back from the field on the May 3rd, when I saw a group of people with Our Group - the first book in the Women in Business series. Seeing these women prompted me to stop and learn more. This group had been replicated in the Namuela village, within the Butemulani cluster. Clementina Azemwa (third from the right) confidently shares this about her experience with WORTH:

"I was not an official member of any group but I was impressed by the content and use of lumasaba in this book, so I asked Nabutuwa Teopista of the Butemulani women's group to lend me her copy. I then started my own WORTH group. Besides me are my daughters in law Mutuwa Scovia,Celina Namweke, Nabuduwa Jennipher, and my grand children Sarah Mutonyi and Wokunyanya Malika - a boy whom I teach Lumasaba with the aid of this book."

This is proof of the amazing impact of WORTH activities in the Mbale area.

Another WORTH group doing wonderful things is the Namutambo Womens group. Here the involvement of the group officers is improving day by day and the group has noticed! They continue to save regularly - confident in their management team - and they have reelected the committee members for a following year. They attribute their success to their Empowerment Worker Jesca Khainza and to the District Director of Women Ministries, Major Sarah Wandulu.  A group member,  Kisakye, had this to say about WORTH, “Most of the women in this group are members of the league of the mercy church ministry and they had given up coming to WORTH group meetings for their church meetings. But, when I talked to them about the benefits of WORTH, they started saving and now have 10 active members. Four members have taken loans totaling Ushs.25,000 ($15.16USD,) and they have a balance of Ushs.80,000 ($50.00USD) in the cash box that they will loan out next week.”

The group meets on Wednesdays at Soono Salvation Army church and they promised to continue the reading and saving program as per the WORTH model.

Finally, a blind woman - Simuya Lusyana - had this to say about WORTH:

“My name is Simiyu Lusyana. I am a 34 year-old widow, and a resident of Bumuyonga village in Namicha. My husband died in 2005 leaving me with two children, Rebecca Nderema and Mary Carolyn Hatete - aged 6 and 13 respectively. Life has been challenging from the time my husband died. It has been hard to provide for my children in terms of clothing, shelter and food. It is not possible for me to go back to my parents in Karamoja for help, so I joined the WORTH program in my community. Meeting with the women in my group brings me encouragement and emotional support. Sometimes they even collect some extra money for me to use for feeding.”

The Namicha women's group has been helping this woman meet her basic needs as well as recover from grief and stigma after the death of her husband who was HIV positive. The group hopes to help Simiyu start a small business to earn her own income, and become self-sufficient.

-Jane Wanyama
WORTH Coordinator
Mbale, Uganda

For more information about WORTH, please visit our website at: http://www.worthwomen.org

 

Comments

[Michaela]

Yay for WORTH! Best of luck this summer as you continue to do great and inspirational work. I will miss you all!!