This past week has been the most productive week in terms of our needs assessment. We had meetings with the heads of the community centres (Bwafwano and Lupwa) and got a better idea of how we can help them be self-sustainable.
Bwafwano: they’ve already purchased 550 chickens and after they grow up they will be sold for more. They will keep on buying and selling chickens and hope that the profits will help them with their expenses.
Lupwa: Many of their community groups live in rural areas and grow plenty of crops. Instead of having strangers take their crops and sell them for more, Lupwa would be that middle man. And to sell the idea even further, Lupwa would offer to pick up the crops from the homes (because at the moment the women have to pay SO much just to get their vegetables to the markets). And where do we come in? One of the issues brought up by the community was that the market isn’t reliable. So we’ll find one for them. We’re going to call hotels, embassies, and any other big market we can think of. If we can get them to sign a contract with Lupwa (the middle man), then the women who take care of these gardens (and produce kilos of veggies a week) will be guaranteed a sale and would not have to pay as much to take care of the gardens and sell them (because transportation would be covered). Lupwa would make money because they would buy the veggies for a certain price and then sell them for more. Hotels/embassies/large markets would benefit as well because they wouldn’t have to go out and seek vegetables from the regular market. They would just get delicious vegetables delivered to them for the same price.
So this is our project. Coordinating this. Talking to the communities, talking to Lupwa, and then finding big markets. It’s a big project but if we can start it and rely on people here to complete it then I’ll be more than satisfied.
How we interviewed the communities: We literally went there and asked them questions. In order to show respect, we had to wear our chatanges (a skirt) which were given to us. Some communities were 40 minutes away by foot, 20 minutes and up a hill, or a 40 minute coach cart (with bulls pulling) away. These people live FAR but have awesome gardens and such lovely personalities. We were ALWAYS greeted with song and dance and then they bombard you with hugs. And when we sit on the tarp under the mango tree with them (it’ll vary from 8 community members to 40 members) we ask them various questions about their lifestyle.
A question that I asked them was if they had any help around the house or in their large gardens. One woman looks at me with her wide eyes and shakes her head. She puts her palms out for me to see all the calluses on her hand and proceeded to tell us that she does everything on her own. And all the other women nodded in agreement.
My heart cried this week. I cry for the women who cannot afford to put their children in school because they can’t afford the school uniforms or the school fees. It saddens me to see that these women’s source of income is their gardens – which already cost them a fortune – and their baked goods. They live so, so far away that the only people that can buy their goods are the other women in the community who are in the same position. It hurts me to see that they single-handedly take care of their children, the house and their household income. Out of the 3 communities that we interviewed (about 60 people), only 3 of them were men. These women do EVERYTHING and they still maintain a happy disposition. They still sing, dance and laugh. This past week was an eye opener for me, and I can’t wait to be involved in their empowerment.
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| This is literally the whole house. Notice the little chalkboard behind her son's head (this 15 year old is teaching the kids). Ida is on the far right in the back. |
Hi, I'm certain that you exposed to great and real life experience, this is reality, so if you think a little bit outside the box and forget the emotions for a second, then I think you can start seeing differnt options and solutions to help these women, e.g everyone needs veggies, either locals, resturants, grocery shops, etc.. So from where they stores and people buy their products from, there must be a wholesale supplier and exporters some where there, so I suggest targeting the veggie wholesalers, of course probably they will buy it cheap bec, they want to make profit,but at least they will be certain that they will sell their corps. Another idea, could be to change planting the type of viggies, for example,plant the type that you can dry them, i,e OKRA, mint,herbal teas, etc. by this approach they have 2 types of viggies, one for their local consumption and the other for sale and export. I think that they need to think for the short,medium and long term, and for me short term is to plant for sustain their lifes while thinking of planting something different (as mentioned above)also, they might seek some grants from the Gov, or UN to support them in these initiatves, and a long term for me could be selling their products to exporters and wholesalers or start building a small factory producing their home made food, i.e jams, dried fruit, dried veggies, etc, and hopefully to develop a small food processing and packaging factory. I know its an ambitious idea but hey nothing is impossible, and hold to your deams bec no one can stop you
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