Greetings to you all,
I hope this blog finds you well. The first phase of our lockdown uplift has been initiated: the release of private cars for people to have more mobility to further places. This is an improvement from the bicycles, motorcycles and walking. This has come but it has also been regulated to only 3 people in the vehicle including the driver. They also have to have a facial mask on with no exceptions or else the car is stopped and impounded. The streets are now flooded with cars and a friend of mine was telling me how he met about 6 accidents as he drove home. Anyways the lockdown continues and some of the measures are still functional, the curfew as all people are expected to be home by 7pm.
Otherwise work for us as ISEE Solutions continued. I called by phone and spoke to some of our older Mama Nguvu candidates from 2014 – 2017. We thought we should check on them to see how they are faring during these tough times.
Semmy S is in the village at the moment. She lost her uncle and had to go for the burial in her village in a district called Lira. She left the kids at home alone but said they can take care of themselves. Semmy has some domestic violence issues in her marriage which led to a separation with her husband, in the middle of last year. Our concern with the children was to know if they were safe. She said she would be back in town before the week ends, probably by Friday.
Florence A and her family are well at the moment. The snack business she started after the lockdown is doing well in trying to sustain them for now. Florence has managed to sustain her family very well with the government distributed food, which most of our Mamas have since finished.
Amina A is doing well. She recovered from an ulcer last week, which could have been caused by the fasting she had been doing this past month of Ramadan. She was hospitalized for about 4 days and was put on about 6 drips at the clinic. When we spoke, she said that she had been discharged but had a debt worth 60,000/-, so I sent her 40,000/- towards her medical fees.
Margaret N is doing well. She is recovering from a damaged nerve in her left leg. She told me that about a week ago, she stood up and she could not feel her leg as it was paralyzed. She was not able to move because there was sharp pain whenever she would try to move her leg. She has since seen the doctor and got some medical attention. She says it’s too painful to sew so she is not sewing much at the moment.
Harriet L from the 2014 group of Mamas is doing okay. She is a tailor and is not working at the moment. When we spoke on the phone, the first thing she did was to ask for some help. She was so desperate and was saying she hadn’t had a meal that day and her husband’s boda or motorcycle had broken the previous week. I sent her some money to help them sort out the issue of meals that day and maybe the next day too. Otherwise she still tailors but hasn’t had any business during this Covid period and the house help or chores family was not calling her anymore. So she had no income at all.
Immaculate M, also from the 2015 group, is doing well. She still does her social work at the hospital and we didn’t get the opportunity to talk about her salon. The network was bad and I wasn’t able to get her on the phone the next day.
Hadijja N is doing okay. She is still in the village, getting done with the last funeral rights arrangement for her brother. She intends to come back before Friday.
Lillian N, another Mama Nguvu member from 2017, is well. She has since given birth to another baby girl, who is now 7 months old, called Abigail. She had stopped the popcorn business when she got pregnant and got into crochets. This was the business she had started doing after leaving the popcorn business. She said that the shopping arcades or malls are closed and she isn’t able to get threads to sew. She used to market them to fellow pregnant women as they like to buy them for their babies. Otherwise her entire family is okay and have been doing well.
Irene L is doing okay. She is another Mama from the 2014 group. She still lives down in Namuwongo so we can easily locate her when the roads open up again. She still owns a salon but is currently doing a charcoal business on the side as she goes through this season. She has not been able to do much at all since the lockdown.
Prossy L, is doing well including her kids and grandchild. The challenge for her now was the fact that it has been dry the last two weeks. They have received rain only once in this time so her garden is still dry, so no vegetation to feed the pigs. I will call her first thing next week to know what position she is in.
This week has been successful for me, especially after being able to contact some of our older Mama Nguvu partners from 2013-2014. It was a great joy to speak to them and find that they are well. It is unfortunate that I was unable to find others because their phone numbers had either been changed or lost. On the bright side, talking to them was such a good thing because they felt loved and cared for. Most were happy to hear my voice and extended their regards to you all.
The first phase of the uplift is a good start in trying to release the pressure on the public as people have started being anxious a bit. The authorities are making sure that sensitization is happening at all stages to ensure that people do not forget that the risk of catching the virus is still present. Also that people take care of themselves on the road because of road accidents that have seen one motorcyclist who lost a limb on Tuesday this week. Thank you for following us throughout this time, for supporting our Mamas endlessly. Stay safe and be sociable.
Yours,
Andrew Echel
