The stories of the ladies in Naggalama village

The stories of the ladies in Naggalama village

16^th November 2006
This is the last of the interviews for the ladies who will appear on GrassRootsUganda.com. Other interviews can be found her:

We had lots and lots of ladies coming forward for interviews in Naggalama. Maybe it was because of the free sweeties I was handing out at the end of each interview...

Basemath (Bess) Nakubulwa
Bess is thirty years old, mother to Marvin - a four year old bouncy baby boy, and a single mother. Marvin's father rarely helps with the baby and lives somewhere else. Bess (and Marvin) hardly ever see him.

Bess works as a volunteer with an NGO called MUMYO (Mukuno Multipurpose Youth Organisation). She receives a stipend of ush50,000 ($US27.03) a month.

It costs Bess ush45,000 ($US24.32) per year to send Marvin to nursery school.

Marvin gets malaria about once or twice every month. Sometimes he is so weak from the malaria and the medication, that he cannot go to school for an entire week. He also runs around faster than he should and is forever falling down and grazing his knees and elbows. He also managed to twirl a piece of fishing wire into his eyes once. No permanent damage was done.

Bess can afford three meals a day and she and Marvin usually eat cassava, beans, posho and cabbage. She grows all the food herself.

She uses three jerry cans of water per day. Since Marvin is plainly too small to help, she usually has to make the 30 minute round trip three times a day. She shares the well with fifteen other families.

She would like it if people purchased necklaces from GrassRootsUganda.com as it would give the craft group in Naggalama hope.

She would love to complete her university education. She is part of the way through a business studies course, but had to stop because there was no way she could afford the ush1,200,000 ($US649) per year university fees.

Her greatest wish though is too give Marvin a good education in the hope that he will become a doctor one day.

Catherine Nambi
Catherine is a widow with five children - two sons and three daughters. Her husband passed away of AIDS three years ago. She herself has been tested for HIV four times but - thankfully - has came up negative every time.

In the morning, Catherine works the farm and then prepares the children for school. Some of the food she grows is for home consumption. She grows coffee and vanilla commercially. Unfortunately the market price for vanilla in particular had plummeted in recent times. It use to fetch ush30,000 ($US16.23) per kilo, but no she is lucky to get ush1,000 ($US0.54) per kilo.

In the afternoon she works as a tailor and earns ush50,000 ($US41.53) a month.

Catherine works hard to ensure all her children go to school. Her eldest child (20) wants to go to university and is clever enough to do so, but there is just no way Catherine can afford the ush1,200,000 ($US649) university fees. So her eldest is currently looking for a job in Kampala.

She prepares two meals per day for her family. Typically sweet potato, cassava and posho.

She feels one of her major problems is that she works a lot, yet all of her money is spent on keeping the house running. She thinks it would be great for people to support GrassRootsUganda.com as it would make her life a little bit easier as a single mother.

Her greatest wish is a good education for her children and a good home in which for them to live.

Haawa Namukasa
Haawa is forty-seven years old, mother to six children, and a widow - her husband died of AIDS last year. She looks after three of the children herself, and the rest are looked after by her mother in a nearby town.

All of Haawa's children go to school, though one child has missed the second and third terms of school because Haawa could just not afford it.

Haawa has recently taken out a loan for ush150,000 ($81.08) to help her set up a business. At the moment she is selling: Mats (made by her), cassava chips (very yummy by the way), jipatis, samosas, greens and cassavas.

The room she rents to sell her goods cost ush10,000 ($US5.41) per month.

Her children offer suffer from coughing and flu like symptoms. She feels her children don't get enough food - the eat twice a day - and this is not helping their general health.

She would like it if people bought necklaces and crafts from GrassRootsUganda.com because Ugandans are poor but try very hard.

Her greatest wish would be to stop living in the room she sells her goods from and move into a proper home that her and her children could live in. She also wishes that her children could be well clothed and educated.

She would also love to visit craft exhibitions all over Uganda so she can what other crafts they could make. She likes the idea of a co-operative as they help everyone in the craft group.

Aida Lugudde
Aida is solely responsible for her six children - aged seven to eighteen years old. Her husband died in 1998 in a taxi when it collided head on with another taxi.

She earns ush30,000 ($US 16.22) a month by working as a cook at the local school. Since she works at the school, she only has to pay half the school fees. She still cannot afford all the school fees though, so relies on assistance from friends and MUMYO - a local NGO.

She has no mosquito net and so her children - especially the younger ones - suffer regularly from malaria.

They also suffer from stomach pains and headaches.

Aida prepares two meals a day for her family. Usually a combination of sweet potato, cassava, posho and yams.

She likes GrassRootsUganda.com because it gives a hard working Ugandan a chance to make something of their lives.

At the moment, Aida is renting a single room. She wishes that she could get her own home one day to raise her children in. She also wishes that her children could get a good education.

Juliet Nabrirmua
Juliet is twenty-four years old and stays with her elder sister, her brother-in-law and their five children.

Juliet has two children of her own, a three year old boy and a nine year old girl. Juliet is a widow. Her husband was knocked down and killed by a speeding taxi - an all too common occurrence in Uganda.

At the moment, Juliet is unable to find any paid work. She hopes that the necklaces that are sold on GrassRootsUganda.com will bring her some income.

Her brother-in-law provides most of the income for the family unit by working as an HIV counselor.

Juliet helps her sister prepare the meals for the family. At the moment, they can only afford to eat two meal a day - typically breakfast and supper.

All the children frequently come down with flu-like symptoms. Juliet's children do not come down with malaria very often - a very strange occurrence in rural Uganda. Juliet is not sure why.

Juliet struggles as a single mother. She would like it people purchased necklaces from GrassRootsUganda.com as it would help her feed, clothe and house her children.

Her greatest wish is to construct a house so she could have a home with her family and not have to stay with her sister.

Aisha Nanyombi
Aisha is sixty-five years old spends a lot of her time looking after Masitula - her severely mentally challenged twenty year old daugher.

Aisha had some success at getting Masitula in school, but it proved to very difficult as Masitula cannot a lot trouble even speaking. Aisha is trying to teach Masitula some crafts such as mat weaving and basket makings, but Masitula really struggles. She is unable to roll beads.

Aisha and Masitula household is a complicated one. It is fill with various children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins. Many of the children are orphans - their parents victims of the AIDS virus.

Aisha's husband used to collect skins and dry them for a living, but he is not two old. Aisha, despite being sixty-five years old, still digs the land. Sometimes her own land, sometimes others for some extra money. She also makes and sells mats.

She hopes to sell many necklaces on GrassRootsUganda.com so she can send her children and grandchildren to school.

Her greatest wish is to have a good home to raise her family in and that all her family receives and education.

Loy Nabatanzi
Loy is thirty-eight years old and lives with her mother, brother and her two children - a nine year old son, and a eleven year old daughter.

Loy's husband died in 2003. She suspects it was AIDS, although he was never actually tested.

Loy really struggles to earn any money at all. She does have two piglets which she hopes to sell for ush10,000 ($US5.41) each to raise some school fees.

She works a small piece of farmland to grow foods such as cassava, maize and beans. This ensures that her family eats at least two meals a day.

Her family, and her children especially, suffer from malaria - sometimes many times in a month. This makes their schooling very difficult.

She hopes people buy crafts from GrassRootsUganda.com because, as a single mother, she struggles to give her kids adequate clothing and education.

She wishes that her children good finish their education and get good jobs.

Hajara Naiki
Hajara is thirty six old and takes care of her six children. Hajara's husband abandoned her and her family to be with another woman.

Hajara works very hard to keep her children in school. Sometimes it is just too hard and the children get sent home from school because they haven't paid their school fees.

Hajara rents a small piece of land for ush10,000 ($US5.41) a month. She has signed a three month lease. On the land she grows cassava, beans and sweet potato. She uses all that she grows to ensure that here family eats at least twice a day - usually lunch and supper.

Like nearly everybody else in her village of Naggalama, her family is ravaged by malaria. Each of her children gets malaria between two and three times per month. She cannot afford a mosquito net, or even enough bedding for her children.

Some of her children suffer from septic ulcers as well. She treats these with tablets that she buys form the local clinic. The tablets cost her ush300 ($US0.16) each.

Her greatest wish, like most African women, is to ensure that her children get a good education. She'd like them to go to a better school and have a better chance at getting a good job.

Scovia Nassazi
Scovia is twenty-seven years old and it the mother to three children. She is also a widow - her husband died of AIDS two years ago.

The only income Scovia receives is from making mats. She sells them for ush2,500 ($US1.35) each and sells between three and four a month.

When she is not making mats, Scovia works hard on the farm to ensure that her children can eat at least twice a day - usually lunch and supper. They usually eat cassava, potato and posho.

All her children suffer from malaria and miss many days of school because of it. One of her children frequently suffers from skin rashes as well. Scovia is unsure what causes it.

She hopes people can buy necklaces from GrassRootsUganda.com as it will give her the chance to cater for her home and ensure her children are well educated.

She wishes that her children can get good jobs after they are well educated and that she can move from a rented room into a house.

Hellen Namaalwa
Hellen is thirty-six years old and lives with her five children - aged four to sixteen. Hellen also takes care of her Mama who suffered from a stroke and is paralyzed down her back and in one of her legs.

Hellens husband - tragically - suffer from mental health problems and took his own life. Hellen could no longer afford a rented house after her husbands breakdown and subsequent death and now has to live in a single rented room.

Her Mama does own a plot of land though which Hellen uses to grow cassava, beans and potatoes. She also owns an adult female pig. Hellen sells the piglets that the pig produces to help pay for school fees.

Only three of Hellen's five children go to school. She cannot afford to send the remaining two.

Her eldest child falls sick so often that it Hellen feels is pointless sending her to school. She seems to be okay in the morning, but is very sick by the time afternoon rolls around. She has been this way since she was fifteen months old. The doctors are unsure as to what causes it, so just treat it as if malaria, which isn't really helping...

She hopes people buy necklaces from GrassRootsUganda.com because she really struggles to get the school materials that are really needed by her children.

Her greatest wish would be for her children to be educated and owning her own home.

Harrite Namambwe
Harrite is twenty-four and stays with her mother. She has two children of her own, aged four and six years old.

Harrite used to live with the father of her children in a far away place. She chose to bring her children and herself back to her own village. She rarely sees the father.

Harrite had Polio when she was younger and this left her with one paralyzed leg. She now walks with a crutch.

Most African women work the land. This is hard at the best of times, but it is even harder for Harriete with her lame leg.

She helps her mother as best she can. They earn money by working a piece of farmland. Some of the crops - beans, cassava, sweet potato - they eat, and some they sell. Part of the land is rented and part of it is owned by Harrite's mother.

Harrite typically has two meals a day - lunch and supper. Supper tends to be sweet African tea with the leftovers from tea.

Harrite feels that Africans are trying hard to sustain their living through making these beads, and it would be great if other people could buy the necklaces.

Her greatest wish is a permanent home for her children and that they are well educated.

Rehema Nakku
Rehema is forty year old and has four children ages six to ten years.

Rehema's husband passed away from AIDS nine years ago. Rehema's husband died before he could finish constructing the house that were going to live in. Her dearest wish is to have a house of her own as her family are currently living in a rented room.

Rehema makes a living by making and selling mats. She sells each mat for ush3,000 ($US1.62) and sells between three and four a month.

She always works a plot of her own land. She sells some of the crops she grows and eats some of it as well.

Two of her children - a boy called Kato and a girl called Babirye - are six year old twins. The money Rehema receives is not enough to send the twins to school. She is hoping the money from GrassRootsUgdana.com is enough to get the twins to school.

She also helps to get enough money to afford the medical bills for malaria and a cough that they children often develop.

Caroline Nalule
Caroline is thirty-six years old and lives in a rented house with her husband and their three children.

Caroline's husband is thirty eight years old and has two other wives (polygamy is common in Uganda). He has a twenty-two children (!). He refuses to pay any of the school fees, so Caroline has to cover them all herself.

Her husband owns a small piece of land which he has been forever promising to build a house for Caroline and her children on. Rose has been trying hard to save enough money to buy her own house.

Caroline works as a teacher at the local school. All her children go the school Caroline works at.

Caroline's children suffer from fevers, coughs and malaria. One child also has eye problems. Her eyes become very itchy and develop sores.

Since Caroline is working at the school, she only has time to prepare one meal a day for her family. When she is not working, she prepares two meals a day.

Caroline would love to own a sewing machine so she could make uniforms for the children at her school. The money would go towards her much dreamt about house.

Ddamba Naume
DDamba stays with her husband and her youngest child (17). Two of her older sons and their wives died of HIV and so is taking care of their children as well.

Ddama owns some land where she grows cassava, maize and sweet potato. She eats some of it and sells some of it. She also owns a cow. She sells the milk from the cow.

Ddama is also a trained tailor and often hires sewing machine to work with for ush7,000 ($US3.78) a month. Her legs are paining her due to the constant pedaling she has to do on the sewing machine.

She also has developed serious nose bleeds. The doctors are unsure what caused it.

The money she earns for sewing, and the crops she harvests from the fields, are enough to give her family two meals a day.

She would love for people to buy crafts from GrassRootsUganda.com because it would help her pay for her young grandchildren's school fees.

She would love to get an electrical sewing machine as this would stop the pain in her legs.

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