This past week I was able to complete tasks that included the following people and events:

• Jenifer Bamulekye
• Irene Lamaro
• Lorna Kalenda
• Margaret Nakalema
• Prossy Lumbuye
• Jenifer Nakanwagi
• RAHU event

Jenifer Bamulekye food vendor 2015

One of my past week’s events was to ensure that I delivered some items to her but I was not able to find her because she been up and down with some health issues. The latest was getting an infection in her index finger that caused her to take a week off and by the time I found her, she had returned from a minor operation to let it bleed out.

She had been out of work for about a week and was opening up for the first time that week, so I told her about the items and she was really excited that she hugged me and held my hand. I called Rovence to find out whether she would be around so I could actually deliver the items to Jenifer. We met her later that evening and I handed over the items to her which included; 12 bowls and 12 plates plus 4 saucepans.

Irene Lamaro salon 2014

I have been trying to locate her over the past few weeks now since the time we wanted to buy the items from her salon to give them to Florence. She told me that her idea was that she just wanted to add to the business. She says that the idea of her only having a salon was not sufficient looking at the many bills she has to pay. She wanted to add the tailoring part as a second income avenue since she already had a place and did not need to actually rent another business location looking at what has troubled most of our tailoring Mamas over the past few months.

The news turns out to be both good and bad as to why she has not been available over the past two months or so, it turns out that she is 3 months pregnant. The bad news is that she was using expired family planning medicine and she ended up being pregnant when she was not prepared. She found when she was falling sick and the nurses kept treating her malaria and typhoid without realizing that she was actually pregnant, later they did and adjusted the medicine and now she has returned feeling better though still having the pregnancy side effects.

She opened shop but still weak and I found her actually resting at the time I went to see her; she was with one of her children who had not yet reported to school due to fees issues. The business has not yet picked up, the power has been cut off because she has a two month’s debt from when she was not around and the bad month. She had been selling some drinks too but all the money had been swallowed up in medication and her fridge had broken down so she was and is literally on the low end that she is hardly getting by now days. Her dryer also is now completely broken down and she can’t use it anymore.

Lorna Kalenda tailor 2014

The business has been a little slow lately but she is doing okay, lots of ups and downs though within the last one month from the last time I spoke to her. In January one of her sons actually got his hand broken under some unclear conditions she says because he had gone to play with his friends but later she was called to be told that a slab had fallen on his hand and it had been crushed. The clinics couldn’t work on him so he was referred to Mulago hospital and he was worked upon later that night when the bone specialists had come, good thing is that they were able to save the hand because it looked like it wasn’t going to be kept she said.

The ups are that she was able to get a grand son about a week before that event and she was excited to actually show him to me, the girl that she had been struggling to get to do vocational training gave her a grandson who now stays with her full time because the father to the boy is not able to take care of them.

Otherwise apart from that the rest of her kids are doing well, one of them received sponsorship under one of the programs she registered for people living positively so they are taking care of his school dues until a much later time until high school. the continuation will also depend on how well the kid performs in school. The business is okay as she is getting some small orders here and there which are okay for her for now.

Margaret Nakalema tailor 2014

I spoke to her phone as a follow up on the promise that she made that she would start working on setting up her business again in February so I was looking out what she has been able to accomplish over this time, turns out that she has not done much she said because she has not finished fixing her machine. So I urged her to work on getting the few small things done just as baby steps since she has had not much money to repair the machine fully.

She said that the machines lack needles and the string that is used to rotate the wheel to help in the sewing. The needles got broken during the time she was at school so she has none. She has not enrolled in the training programme that she was telling me about because she has been looking for the materials that they had requested. She said she was working on it and I promised to call her next week to find out what is going on.

Prossy Lumbuye pig farmer, paper making project 2014.

I spoke to her on phone three times in the past two days and she told me that she got an accident and had her leg stitched plus she suffered two big bruises. She said that a boda knocked her down by the road side and actually her ankle was sprained and she had been bed ridden. I was not able to go see her because I was up and down a lot this week and I was not able to see her even though she wanted me to go. I later called and apologized for my failure to make it, I might go and see her later this week though.

Jenifer Nakanwagi shoe business 2016.

This one in specific I was to get in touch with her to pick the receipts from school and I was able to get them this week and I took pictures of the receipts which I will attach to this particular email. The business she said was okay though the last two batches were not that good and she didn’t not make as much money as she would have liked.

Lastly I went to the RAHU event which was successful in my eyes even when we reached late at the venue the people where able to do or carry out their exercises and the event was a success. All the activities were actually carried out but I was able to only participate in the reproductive health exercise because that was my point of concern. I also spoke to both Gilbert and Athibert about the sex education and Katereza project respectively. I will write a full report of what transpired through my dialogue with these two gentlemen in a separate post.

Report by:

Echel Andrew