Greetings to you all,

I hope that you are all well. Unfortunately for me as I write this, I am fighting a cold and sore throat. It started early this week with an itchy feeling in my throat so I started drinking orange and ginger juice to try and treat it but I guess my immunity was already low. 

The weather has not been friendly lately as it has been so hot that someone joked that, “this heat could boil a chicken”. It is usually like this just before the rainy season begins here. It is always extremely hot. I have had to sleep in my sitting room with my window open because my bedroom is on the west side where the sun sets, so the brick walls absorb all the heat during the day and let it out in the night. So my week has not been as good as I would have wanted but I guess I can only do what I can do.

The Covid situation is still not the best here as the government is not paying as much attention. They have put mass testing on hold and people only test if they have to travel abroad or go to meet the president. The online statistics show that we have just gone past the mark of over 40,000 cases, with over 15,000 recoveries and 334 deaths. The average rate of infections have been put at 27 new infections every day. The majority of Ugandans are wearing masks in public places and some major supermarkets and shopping malls still enforce wearing of masks and washing of hands but only a few enforce social distancing. Social distancing is one of the disciplines that have not been observed in most places especially food markets and clothing markets. 

My goal this week was to ensure that we got all the Mamas from last week settled in and also to finish the little errands that we hadn’t gotten done. Given the way I have been feeling this week, I decided to focus on completing these tasks. So, I met with Lornah K, Annet C and then visited Irene L and Lilly A to see how they are doing.

Lornah and I shopped last week for all the hard assets like saucepans, cups, plates, spoons, charcoal stove and forks. This week I met her to buy the foodstuffs she needed so that she could boost her capital. We bought her rice, beans, posho (corn flour), cooking oil and a few cooking spices. Usually our intention of buying these items is to ensure that they have an easier start. She was really excited as we shopped and she was really grateful. She offered me a meal when I go to visit the restaurant in the coming weeks.

Irene l’s salon is looking great. She has organized all her goodies on the wall to display then and has also organized for the landlord to get her power. She would not be able to use some of her electric appliances like dryers, irons and other small things so she had the electrician come work on the wiring. I am really happy that amidst some personal issues she discussed with me about not having money, she is brave to take on such an action. This is why I personally thought Irene is worth another shot of investment.

Annet C. from last week’s Mama Boost was able to meet me in town to do her shoe shopping and we had a great time. She had already mapped out the shops she was going to buy the shoes from. So when I got to town, it was a walk in the park. We were done in less than 45 mins which normally for others would take us about an hour and a half (… and the rest… -ed.). We went to three shops and picked up small bags of shoes which we later put in one huge bag to help ease the transportation. 

These past couple of months have not been easy for a couple of our Mamas’ who have lost their parents. It started with Margaret who lost her brother, then her mother shortly and now Lilly A. also lost her father about 10 days ago. She went to bury her father and on the day of his burial, Lilly’s Aunt also died, so she had to stay an extra two days to bury her Aunt. Lilly just came back 3 days ago. She has dived back quickly in her busy life as she always does, so that’s a good thing. Lilly is a very hardworking Mama and it gives me great joy to see her back in her shop doing business. I wished her well as usual and we parted ways.

These are the few events that happened this week, I apologize for not being able to do more but I will back next week as always to bring you lots of details of what is going on. 

Our Mama Boost of the Week

Harriet L; She first enrolled with us in 2015 as a tailor and we helped her acquire her own sewing machine. She has since requested us to boost her business with a retail tailoring shop to help supply sewing needs to local tailors. Her budget is just over 2,000,000 Uganda shillings, a budget that is quite big but would be a good investment.

(approx. $695 CAD)

If you are interested in contributing to this boost, please email us at erika (at) iseeSolutions (dot) org

Yours Sincerely

Andrew Echel 

Director for Programs, Uganda

ISEE Solutions Society