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Where
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The stories of the ladies in Buvunya village15th October 2006 Fausta Nabayunga She left her husband about seven years ago when he got a girlfriend. Her husband claimed that he would take care of their five children and so she made the hard decision of leaving them with him and his new girlfriend. He was not good on his promise and the children gradually returned to Fausta one by one. According to Fausta, he provides no parental love whatsoever and the kids haven't seen him for years. Her three youngest children (13, 14 and 15) live with her. She cannot afford to send anyone of them to school. Her two eldest live in Gulu and Jinja where they are sponsored by local families who provide food and accommodation. Fausta pays for the school fees. She earns money by digging other peoples' land. She earns about ush10,000 ($US5.04) for the three days a month she can dig. She has also rented a piece of land for ush50,000 ($US25.19) a year. She hopes to raise enough money from it to send her kids to school. She has chest pains that cost her ush20,000 ($US10.08) a month in healthcare. Since there are twenty people in the household, all earning a piecemeal income, they can only eat one meal a day. Her long term dream is to start her own catering business. In the meantime she wishes that you would buy her product so that she could feed her children. Janet
Babisewano They try to make a
living by selling fruit to the roadside retailers.
The also own three pigs and three goats which they hope to fatten
up and then sell to raise the school fees ($US23.00) for the two young
children. The situation is
not helped by Janet’s heart condition, which costs her $US3.27 a
month. She hopes that one
day she will be able to open a fruit shop in Kampala.
She also hopes that people will buy her jewelry so that she can become a proud Ugandan once again. Fadd Banutamba She lives with her Mama and Papa, who run a small general goods store selling things like Posho, paraffin oil and rice. The store does not make enough money and unlike most residents of Buvunya, her family does not have a farm. They usually only have one meal a day - supper. Fadd had to drop out of school in the sixth year of primary school - her parents just could not afford the school fees ($US23.00). Only three of her four siblings go to school. She wishes she could complete school one day. Her big dream though is to open a salon in Kampala one day. She spends most her day sitting around, occasionally helping her Mama with the daily chores. Jane Mbabazi Her small business selling ladies garments in Kampala failed and Livingston - her brother - was shot during the war in 1985. Jane tried for a long time to get pregnant with her husband and finally succeeded after a number of years. It was not the blessing she expected to be. When she was five months pregnant, her husband kicked her out with just the clothes she was wearing and promptly invited his girlfriend in. Her mother has a serious heart condition. Consultations at the hospital and medication costs her between ush60,000 ($US30.23) and ush65,000 ($US32.75)a month. All of her income comes from a small brick making business she owns. She pays local men ush3,000 ($US1.51) to make the mud bricks and sell them for ush80 ($US0.04) each. She hopes that you will buy her crafts because it will make her a proud Ugandan again. Zaina Nalubanga Her husband provides the main income for the family by driving a boda-boda. He earns about ush8,000 (US$4.03) a day, ush3,000 ($US1.51) of which he can keep for himself. The rest goes to the owner of the boda-boda. Zaina also tends to a small goat and a calf. She hopes to grow them to adult size and then sell them to pay for her daughters' school fees. They grow cassava, potato, maize and beans on the farm around their house. She used to use fertilizer and pesticides, but can no longer afford them. They occasionally buy bananas and rice. It is not enough though - they only eat two meals a day. She wishes people would buy her crafts so they should could afford to give her daughters milk and send them to school. Beading is her first job and she likes it that it gives her the chance of improving herself and her family. Florence Namukasa They are sending one of their eldest son to college. The college fees are expensive at ush150,000 ($US75.00) a term, but the hope that their son will get a good job and will be able to provide for them. Her husband is a boda-boda driver and earns about ush5,000 ($US2.52) a day. Her husband grows cassava, maize and tomatoes in the farm around her house. They consume all they grow. They can afford to buy meat about once a month. Florence sustained some injuries when she gave birth to her young twins and so she is unable to help on the farm. Florence purchased one hundred chickens a year ago. Only thirty-seven remain. The rest have died of various diseases. She sells one tray of eggs a day for ush3,000 ($US1.51). She wishes she could afford to buy some mosquito nets to keep her children healthy and that her son gets a job so that she can have all her children in school. Majorine Nankya She is one of the luckier people in the village in that she goes to school. She share a class with fifty-six other students and her favorite subject is mathematics. Her long term dream is to move from the village into Kampala and open her own hairdressing salon. She knows it will be a struggle for her to raise the ush3,000,000 ($US1511.34) a year for a three year hairdressing course. One day she hopes to get married and have three children. Her family grows and sells coffee, vanilla and bananas. They also have three cows (whose milk they sell), four adult pigs and eight young pigs. All the chickens they had died of disease. One of her brother recently got measles. The family could not afford the medicine and her brother became deaf. It seems as if her siblings is "forever getting malaria". She would love it if people could buy her crafts so that she could afford her college fees. Mastula Nanyombi Mastula spends some of her day helping our her Mama with washing and cooking. The rest of day she spends sitting around - she had to drop out of school in the sixth year of primary school because her family could not afford the school fees. She dreams of one day becoming a hairdresser, a tailor or a caterer. She does not want to get married. She feels marriage has a lot of problems like the man will beat you and won't earn enough money to feed her family. She gets malaria about once a month. She wishes people would buy her crafts so that she can feed herself. Isabirye Sauda Two of her children - including Mastula who is also involved in the craft project - cannot go to school for economic reasons. Her husband buys crops from local growers and tries to sell them to the bigger markets using his boda-boda. It is hard work, but he does manage to bring home between ush10,000 ($US5.04) and ush20,000 ($US10.08) a week. They generally eat what they grow on their own farm - cassava, beans, potatoes and bananas - but their farm is suffering as they cannot afford pesticides or fertilizers. They eat two meals a day: Breakfast and Supper. They used to have a lot of chickens, but now only have ten. Disease wiped the rest out. The family eats some of the egg and they average selling one egg a day for ush150 ($US0.08). She hopes that one day she would get a steady job and that someone would buy her crafts so that her family can eat. Questions? Comments? Try contacting
me. (c)
2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena. |
