Greetings to you all,

It has been quite a rainy week down here in Uganda which I prefer because I tend to perspire a lot more than most people. The weather has also been good for most of our farmers who have continued in active production of agricultural produce hence food security for the majority of the locals here. It has been kind also to our pig farmer because their gardens are doing well so they are supplementing the dry food with lots of leaves and grasses. I was told that some of these herbs or greens from the garden are medicinal to these animals, so these rains have been good.

Uganda has now registered 106 death cases from Covid 19 from 11,767 cases registered and 7,460 plus recoveries since the first case was registered. This week our country lost a prominent army officer, Gen. Shaban Bantariza, due to Covid 19. He died on 27th October 2020 and was given a full army send-off and a 24 gun salute. It is reported that he had some health challenges with hypertension, which continues to alert us on trying to protect the elderly more.

This week we continued to reach out to more of our Mamas in the hope that we can continue to impact their lives in more ways than one. I met Justine N, Anna M, Cissy N, Christine N and Annet but I also spoke to Dorah A. on phone.

Justine N. has been struggling to pick her saucepan and it has been over 8 months since she took it for repair. The bottom of the pan got blown out and needed to be repaired but when she took it to the metal works people who requested for 300,000/- and she paid 100,000/- installment. We decided last week that we needed her to get the saucepan back and we paid the remaining balance of which she will pay ½ of the amount offered. This week she called me to notify me of the delivery of the saucepan at her home. 

The struggle still continues for Anna M. as she has finally requested that we give her time to think and reassess her options because it seems tighter for her than ever before. She has struggled to sustain her salon, shifting from one place to another and never seeming to settle down finding a perfect place for the salon. She has also been struggling with health related issues and told me that she had been admitted to a local medical facility earlier with malaria. She showed me some small wounds on the side of her lip, which is a common symptom of malaria patients here. Henceforth, I will remain in contact with her majorly on the phone to keep tabs on what is happening in her life moving forward.

Struggles on land related issues seem to never end and now they have creeped to our next Mama Cissy N. The story is that her husband died a few years ago and left her some property on which she has been cultivating some food, hosting her business and also living on it with her kids. One of the biggest effects Covid 19 in our country, has been extreme poverty so people are selling everything they have to sustain themselves. The relative who wants to sell the property is a brother-in-law and he has already sold his portion but now wants to sell Cissy’s portion. She has been battling them for about a month now as they have moved from family meetings, to clan meetings and now she might have to go to court. I will have to check on her weekly or even every other day to get the update on this matter.

The same thing is happening to Christine N. who has been battling the same issue with her husband this time round. I was able to meet her only at Maria’s piggery because they are neighbors but also I needed to be safe. During today’s conversation with her, she told me that he had ordered her to remove the chickens from the brooder and that she needs to leave his house. The situation has not changed and it looks like she has to take the matter further and seek proper legal action because they need to stop this man from destroying this lady’s life. She is worried about the safety of her pigs and chickens because he is jealous of her progress in life. 

Annet N’s situation has not improved much or at least has not changed but the good thing is that she still has working space. The last time we were at her work place, she thought that she would be kicked out of the space she is working at because there was a supermarket moving in the space where she was working. It turns out that it will actually be a while for the supermarket to move in because more work needs to be done on the actual building before she is forced to move. It also looks like business was good especially with the many rains, the tea and porridge has been selling that she made another payment on her contribution worth 15,000/- Uganda shillings.

On the phone I spoke to Dorah A., who we helped get a restaurant last week. She has finally gotten the keys to the restaurant room after all the repairs and modeling has been done. This has been a great development for this particular mama because we have been looking for a good location and it has taken almost a year to find it. She told me that she would be set to open on the 2nd of November 2020. We will observe the proceedings and see where we might be involved to help Dorah support her family another time.

We would like to say “Mwebale nnyo” which is the luganda word for thank you so much especially if it’s written with the emphasis of the two n’s (nn). We are so grateful for all your support and donations that help to ensure that this work continues mama after mama. Please keep note that we will be moving off all social media platforms at the end of this month of October. Ensure that you share your emails with us or just follow us on our website and sign up for all blogs on our projects.

Your sincerely

Andrew Echel

Director of Prog, Uganda

ISEE Solutions Society.