Tag: women micro-entrepreneurs

Rakai Health Sciences Program promotes Women’s Entrpreneurships, supports Child-headed Households

This morning KCDO gratefully received direct assistance from the Rakai Health Sciences Program, an organization sponsored by Johns Hopkins University. Rakai has previously provided 5 years of HIV medicine and research for local KCDO children afflicted with HIV.

Bukenya Willy, Executive Director of KCDO, writes, “Am happy to inform you that Rakai Health Sciences Program has supported more women and child-headed families with income generating projects to ensure sustainability and family improvements in income levels.”

Bukenya Willy continues, “The support includes retail shop items, charcoal sellers, farm inputs like vegetable seedlings, herbicides, fertilizers, spray pump.”

“Watering cans were given to all HIV positive children so that they can help in the gardens.”

Receiving these gifts is both a great achievement and a great blessing. KCDO’s ongoing positive relationship with Rakai has helped secure this important assistance. These products will give women and children the ability to work to sustain their own families so that they can have independence and security.

Piggery Pop-Up

The Covid-19 pandemic has reached Uganda, and KCDO offices are being closed; the piggery is being temporarily disbanded. Fortunately, notwithstanding the pandemic, the KCDO piggery is providing frontline micro-economic opportunities for local women in the Lwengo District of Uganda.

As Jack Neighbor notes in a recent article in National Geographic, “Women have long been underestimated and underutilized in many societies, including across Africa. Now, through hard work, global commitments, and localized training initiatives, women entrepreneurs are making their mark on the economies of southern Africa.”

Each piglet, with her bag of food, is ready to start a new piggery

To Neighbor’s point, both the piggery and KCDO are using this opportunity to provide 20 local women with booster grants and materials to start their own businesses.  KCDO has been teaching entrepreneurial skills for the past year.  The women graduates are now provided with the tools for success.

Willy writes, “Am happy to inform you that today, Saturday, we have been able to support 20 women with income generating projects to assist them in these trying moments.  10 women got pigs, animal feed and booster feeds to start their own piggery schemes at the household level.  Others have got retail shops items like merchandise goods, drums for brewery, seedlings, fertilizers since its planting season, among others.”

And he says,

“We are grateful to Wonderland BookSavers and the team who helped us start the piggery project that is supporting other small businesses for rural poor women in Kyamaganda community and Lwengo District.”

This is a great example of successful micro-entrepreneurship, which started with a fund-raising pool party in the USA and 8 months later concludes with financial independence for 20 women and their families in Uganda.

 “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” Romans 12:10