“Young Lady: Good morning, I need to write something and you came on my mind first. I would like to write a letter to The Speaker of Parliament.

Me: About what?

Young Lady: The key issues are:

1) I would like her to offer financial support to the women’s group I have been working with in my home district.

2) I also need some support towards my business. The business is dying and unable to meet customers’ demands.

Me: Shouldn’t you be writing to your District Woman MP?

Young Lady: Haaa. My Woman MP!”

This conversation happened via Facebook Messenger. I have never met face-to-face the young lady who has reached out to me seeking my help to author a letter to the current Right Honorable Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among.

From how the young lady markets her business on social media, it exists. There is every indication from her social media marketing that she is often unable to meet the demand of have customers, in the sense that her products are good and sell out quick.

She needs financial support in form of capital for investment, in order to produce more, but without getting saddled with expensive debt that may instead collapse her business.

First, that the young lady reached out to me pleases me, for it confirms that the impact of CPAR Uganda’s work mentoring young adults into innovators against poverty is appreciated, is recognised and is needed in the communities that we work.

Second and equally important, is the learning that we can draw from this exchange. This is a young lady, a university graduate, is not in ‘formal employment’ as her formal education had prepared her to be, but is doing her very best to earn a living for her and her family; and while at the same time, she seeks to help other women in her community.

This young lady’s case is the norm throughout Uganda. This I have realised from my fieldwork travels countrywide, since 1992 when I joined the civil society development arena. The majority of disadvantaged women, and they are many, are doing their best to make a living under very tough situations. Often the help that they need the most is financial support and financial literacy skills.

At the shop of hardworking women entrepreneurs of Rubona. I stopped by while I was on my return journey from doing fieldwork in Kasese. If you are ever in the area, they are about 20 kilometers from Fort Portal on the Kasese Road. I bought two baskets from them and I can confirm that their products are of high quality. When in the area, don’t miss the opportunity to stop by and Buy Uganda and Build Uganda. Value for money is guranteed.

The two baskets I bought from the hardworking women entrepreneurs of Rubona still serving me well at my home in Entebbe.

Majority of Ugandan women are hardworking and work hard at producing multiple things for sale, so that they are able to make money to meet the needs of their households.

At anyone time you will find the same woman is engaged in more than one income generating activity – farming crops for sale, rearing animals for sale, weaving baskets for sale, frying pancakes for sale, and many others, including labouring on other people’s farms for meagre wages – doing weeding, harvesting and post harvest handling, for example.

Enabling Ugandan women easy access to non-expensive finance is the right thing to do. It facilitates them to engage in their own self-reliant participatory development; an empowering process that ensures that they retain and enhance their dignity.

There are many ways in which to access finance to Ugandan women. The three which I am able to implement at an individual level and which I recommend are:

Way You Can Help 1: Buy their products

Whenever I can and have the opportunity to, I buy products and services from women. Everywhere I have lived in Uganda, while I live there, I establish a network of female suppliers. Currently, in my neighbourhood, for example, I have five female suppliers of fresh food items, each at a different location and with unique products.

When they haven’t seen me at their stalls for a while, they will point it out when they see me next. We have a rapport and an enjoyable relationship which has guaranteed that I get excellent service and products each time. And yes, for each one of them the answer is the same to the question:

If someone was to help you, how would you want them to help your business?

One of them, my supplier for sweet bananas, explained that if she was able to get a grant and or an interest free loan of one million shillings (US$ 275), payable in one year, she would be able to grow her business to the point of self-sustaining take-off.

This is because, according to her, on a weekly basis, should be able to buy larger bulk quantities at a lower item unit cost. Meaning that she would be able to make more profit than she makes now, without necessarily increasing the current sales price. With more profit, she would be able to comfortably re-invest in the business and have more disposal income to meet the needs of her household.

Way You Can Help 2: Give them inexpensive loans for income generation.

Whenever I can, I give women interest free gap-filling loans for income generation. Realistically, however, this is not sustainable. The best solution would be for the women to have a community loan fund from which they can borrow and at low interest. The low interest would grow the fund and also cover the cost of administrating the fund.

Way You Can Help 3: Advocate for others to access women finance.

This is the very essence of this blog post. Indeed, thank you to all who have already made a donation in support of CPAR Uganda’s initiative to access finance to women of disadvantaged traditionally fishing communities no longer able to earn a living from fishing because of fishing restrictions on Lake Kyoga and Lake Victoria.

I invite you to make a donation from as little as forty thousand shillings (US$ 10) which can give three women vendors access to weekly loans for buying products; and more. Every little bit counts.

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A DONATION Alternatively, you can make a donation via MOBILE MONEY. Click here, send us an e-message requesting for the telephone number to which to make the donation. Thank You!

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