Namukama

The stories of the ladies in Namukama village

15^th November 2006
These are the stories of the ladies in Namukama village. They will ultimately be the basis of profiles on GrassRootsUganda.com.

Robinah Kikwalo
Robinah lives at home with her husband and her five children aged from six months to seven years.

Robinah and her husband struggle to raise the money for the two children who are old enough to go to school, though at the moment they're managing it. School fees are ush17,000 ($US 9.19) per term.

They rent a piece of land for ush10,000 ($US 5.13) per year and grow matooke (green banana) and sweet potato. They would like to use fertilizers and pesticides, but cannot afford it. The eat most of the food they grow, and sell some of it when they can.

They also own two goats, two cows and two chickens. The animals are just left to graze - they cannot afford any formal farming techniques. The goats and the cows will be sold for school fees and the eggs from the chickens are sold or eaten.

Robinah also uses any spare time she might have (It's hard work being an African women!) to make tablecloths made from wool. She sells a set of five for a profit of of ush26,000 ($US 14.05). She is lucky to sell one a month.

The have two meals a day - one in the morning and one in the evening. They can afford to buy some meat twice a week.

Robinah walks a five kilometers round trip every day for the three jerry cans of water she and her family needs. Her older children come along and help carry the jerry cans. There is often a long queue at the pump. Robinah boils some of the water everyday so that it is safe to drink.

Malaria is a big problem for Robinah's family. Her children suffer from malaria many times a month. When it gets really bad, she takes them to the hospital in the neighbouring town. Transport costs her ush4,000 ($US 2.16) there and back. Sometimes she has been forced to carry her sick child. It cost her ush2,500 ($US 1.35) to get her child tested, and ush20,000 ($US 10.81) for admission if the malaria is very bad.

She hopes that many necklaces are sold on GrassRootsUganda.com so that she can send her kids to school, buy them a uniform and ensure that they are well fed.

Her greatest wish would be to get electricity in the village and for her husband to get a boda-boda (a motorcycle taxi) so that he can generate some income.

Alaisa Nandudu
Alaisa lives in a single room with her husband and three of their own children. Her sister and her brother-in-law both died of AIDS and Alaisa is looking after their two children as well. Her nephew is HIV positive - he is very prone to malaria and misses many days of school.

Her husband can sometimes get work digging the soil on other people's farm for ush1,000 ($US0.54) a day. He is happy to get ten days of work every month, but would like more.

Her husband is also a trained tailor. Alaisa often pleads with other tailors in the area to rent their sewing machines for ush5,000 ($US2.70) a month. They cannot afford to buy material to convert into clothes, so they can only perform simple repairs for between ush200 and ush300 ($US0.11 and $US0.16).

Alaisa use to own thirty chickens, but twelve died because she couldn't afford to feed them properly. One kilo of maize bran (chicken food) costs ush300 ($US0.11). The chickens sleep in the same one room apartment that Alaisa and her family live in because Alaisa fears they will get stolen again. They eat some of the eggs and sell some for ush100 ($US 0.05) per egg. She hopes to sell some of the chickens to raise school fees.

At the moment, they are managing to keep the children in school. They are paying ush15,000 ($US 8.18) per year for each of the children to go to school. Alaisa wishes she could send at least some of her children to a boarding school, but cannot afford the fees.

Malaria is a problem in Alaisa's home, much like everyone else's in her village of Namukama.

Alaisa can only afford to feed her family once per day. Sometimes they cannot afford to eat at all and they go hungry.

Alaisa walks a five kilometer round trip every day to fetch the five jerry cans of water her family needs. The water is unsafe for drinking and needs boiling.

She hopes that many Namukama necklaces are sold on GrassRootsUganda.com because she wants some capital to pay for school fees and uniforms. She would also use the money to rent a bigger home and purchase a sewing machine.

She wished that her husband could have a permanent job and the Namukama could get electricity one day.

Annet Athieno
Annet is eighteen years old and was forced to drop of of school in her third year of high school due to lack of funds. She would like to return to school one day and finish her studies. Ideally, she would like to go to university and study business management. She understands that this will almost certainly be just a dream - the fees are just too high.

Annet would love to get married one day and have some children of her own. She would love to have four children - two boys and two girls.

She stays with her sister, her brother-in-law and their three children. They are also looking after another brother's son - the brother's wife refused to take care of him because he came from an affair.

Annet helps out by collecting the jerry cans of water from the well that is two-and-a-half kilometers away. She knows that they should boil the water before she drinks it, but they barely have enough fuel to cook the food.

Together, as a family, they tend to their small rented farm. The pay ush20,000 ($US10.81) per year for the farm. They grow cassava, potato, matooke (green bananas) and vanilla. The vanilla used to fetch ush30,000 ($US16.22) a kilo, but the market has plummeted and now the vanilla fetches only ush1,000 ($US0.54) a kilo.

Her brother-in-law also makes bricks when he can. One brick sells locally for ush40 ($US0.02).

Her greatest wish is to preach the Word of God to people both here in Ugandan and all over the world. She would say that there is no doubt that Jesus is the Son of God and that He manages everything.

Madalyn Namierembe
Madalyn lives with her husband and their seven children - aged from one to seventeen years. Two of her children are unable to go to school due to economic reasons.

They own their own farm and cultivate cassava, beans, potato and maize. They also grew coffee, but their entire crop was destroyed by a virus. Most of what they grow is consumed with a small portion sold at that local market. They have two meals a day - breakfast and supper. During the dry seasons - when the crops are much less productive - they are reduced to one meal a day.

Madalyn and some of her children walk a five kilometer round trip every morning to fetch six jerry cans worth of water for cooking and cleaning.

Malaria is a serious problem for Madalyn and her family - particularly her younger children. The medicine costs around ush4,000 ($US2.16) per bout of malaria.

Madalyn's family lack soap for cleaning, salt for flavoring and paraffin to power the oil lamps.

She hopes people will buy GrassRootsUganda.com products as they are all natural and use recycled materials.

Madayln's greatest wish is to become a trader. She would love to buy cheap clothes in Kampala and then sell them at a profit in her own village.

Harriet Nantale
Harriet lives with her husband and their seven children.

They farm a small piece of land and consume all that they grow. They do not have any spare food that they could sell at the market.

Harriet does own some livestock. She has four pigs and two goats. She will sell them soon to pay for school fees. She used to have fifteen chickens, but a local dog attacked and killed seven of them. She sells a chicken whenever she gets desperate for money.

Only her three eldest have had the chance to go to school - Harriet just cant afford to send any more. None of her children have completed secondary school.

Malaria is a serious problem for Harriet's family - especially the young children. When one of them gets very sick with Malaria, Harriet takes them via a pushbike to the hospital. The bike ride takes two hours of hard peddling.

She sites her major problem as lack of money for school fees, clothes for dressing, droughts that cause hunger and famines, not enough beds to sleep on and a general poor standard of living.

She says that Americans know Africans are poor and should provide a market for the necklaces she makes for GrassRootsUganda.com.

Since she is getting old, her greatest wish is to see her children getting an education and living in a good house.

Jastini Nalonga
Jastini is thirty-nine years and shares her home with her husband and her ten children. Her youngest child is fifteen months old and her eldest is twenty-two years old.

Six of her children have been unable to attend school due to financial reasons.

Jastini tend to the farm, which provides enough food for her family to have two meals a day. A small portion of what is grown is sold at market.

Jastini brought a piglet recently and she is very excited that she will be able to grow it into an adult pig and sell it at the market to pay for school fees. She also prepares sisal - a small plant that is used to make rope. She takes it to market and people from Kampala come to buy it.

Jastini wishes that she could buy different types of food at the market to supplement the cassava and beans she usually eats, but cannot afford it.

Jastini walks a one kilometer round trip everyday to fetch water. Some of her children help her carry the eight jerry cans of water that is needed for the family.

Coughing and malaria are the major health problems in Jastini's family. The medicine for the coughing costs ush2,500 ($US1.35) and the medicine for the malaria costs her ush5,000 ($US2.70).

She says her major problem is the lack of income generating skills. She would love to have some spare money so that she could invest in some livestock. Ideally she would like some some cows and have a dairy farm so that she could pay school fees.

She feels that Americans should have pity on Africans and buy some necklaces from GrassRootsUganda.com

Rose Nansubuga
Rose is twenty-three years old, married and mother to three beautiful children aged from seven months old to four years old.

Rose and her family are lucky enough to eat three meals a day. Sometimes they even can afford to buy some posho and maybe meat once a week.

The rent a small farm to grow cassava, maize and beans on. Rose says that one of their big problems is that they farm is a long one mile walk away from her house.

Rose also walks forty minutes each day to collect the two jerry cans of water her family needs. She is not physically able to carry two jerry cans by herself and her children are too young to help. She either has to pay a local child to help her, or make the forty minute track twice a day. African men do not carry water...

Malaria is especially hard on her young family. Her children get malaria many times a month. The also suffer from colds and flu.

She says her major problems are the long distances she has to travel for medical services and that her children are constantly suffering from malaria.

She would like Americans to provide a market for African products and her greatest wish would be to open a salon in Kampala.

Deborah Namukwaya
Deborah is forty-three years old and a widow. Her husband passed away from AIDS in 2000.

Most of her children have moved away from her home, but she is still looking after her twelve and four year olds. She is also looking after two of her orphaned grandchildren. Their parents both passed away from AIDS. Fortunately, both her grandchildren are HIV negative.

Deborah keeps livestock. She had one large pig which produces piglets, ten chickens that produce baby chicks and - rather uniquely for Buvunya - a female rabbit that produces small rabbits. She sells the piglets, chicks and rabbits to pay for school fees and educational supplies.

Deborah has a small crop of land where she grows cassava, beans and maize. She and her family consumes all she grows. They typically eat two meals a day, though this can be less during the dry season.

She has a thirty minute round trip every day to collect four jerry cans of water for her family. Her children come with her to help her carry the jerry cans. There is often a large line at the well and Deborah often waits for up to thirty minutes.

She knows that Americans are aware that Africans are poor and should do more to help - like buying necklaces from GrassRootsUganda.com.

She says her major problems are buying necessities for the home, such as: sugar, salt, clothes and medicines.

Her greatest wish would be to improve her income generating skills so that she can provide for her children.

Questions? Comments? Try contacting me.
Wanna receive an email whenever this site gets updated? Click here.

(c) 2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to link to this page. Heck, you can even copy stuff from here if you want. Just make sure you sight me as a reference.