Greetings to you all,

It is an honour to write to you again at the end of May. This month like many others has surely had its ups and downs but I am glad we made it to the very last week and days of it. 

The National Celebration of Menstrual Hygiene aimed at reducing stigma and creating more awareness went well with meetings and gatherings organized around the country in different communities. I was not able to attend any celebrations physically but I have seen so many endeavours to help keep girls in school around this country. They distributed both single-use and reusable sanitary kits. I picked up a few photos from Action for Health Uganda and Global times which covered these events.

This week, I visited the following Mamas:

Francoise L. is doing well. They have not had any illnesses in recent weeks. The business is still surviving but has a lot of challenges, especially on the prices of the maize, beans and cooking oil. The two boys Jordan and Robert are back in school. She has managed to deposit some installments for their tuition which is a good thing.

Irene L. is scared a little because she received a warning about the railway reserve evictions where both Irene and Harriet fall victim. The revival of the Uganda railways is very eminent and will happen shortly. The challenge now is that most shops have either been hiked in terms of rent or booked because of the high level of demand for business houses. 

Rehema N. is a work in progress for sure as she is still struggling to get back up on her feet. I went to visit her this past week and she was proposing to me an idea in the same line as she is right now. Rehema is a laundry lady, if I might call it that, she goes around washing clothes for people around her community of course at a fee. She now wants to add a second-hand cloth selling business. She has the opportunity to walk door to door asking for laundry and she thought that she might as well be selling clothes while doing this. 

Sarah N. is doing well as her number of goats has since increased from 5 to 10. Two of her goats gave birth and the one that did most recently about 2 weeks ago lost one kid as it was too weak to cope with the environment. She has had a decent two months receiving several kids. She lost a lot of the goats last year due to a weird disease and her goats were stuck at 5 and 7 for a long time. It was exciting to see the house full of both goats and grass. They have a good tendency of harvesting grass for the goats in funny weather conditions. This ensures that the goats have feed at all times. 

Harriet L. has been sick recently but has since fully recovered and is back to business in her tailoring stall. Business surely for her has been improving for a long time now because of her strategic location by the roadside but now she has to move so we will go back to the same dilemma we had about 8 months ago. 

Prossy L. is doing okay but not business-wise. I have not been able to see her because she has moved a bit far out of town but I have been in contact with her recently. She went to the village to take care of her elderly mother who has been struggling with illness for the last 8 months to a year now. I heard about her piggery and it is doing okay and her husband is doing a good job taking care of them. They have not matured enough yet to give birth so they will wait a little longer and this week, I will make a deliberate move to go see the piggery.

Immaculate M. has been doing okay for herself. She managed to secure a small work loan to send her kids off to school recently and now she is left with improving her clinic. The clinic itself has not been bad at all. They is not a better way to say this but they have managed to serve the community very well and she has made some money these past two weeks. 

Hamida N. has not made any progress as the gentleman who promised to build her a pen for allowing him to use her property to create a road for his cows has not fulfilled his promise. He has travelled out of town for the past 3 weeks so construction has since stalled. She called him and he said he would be returning in not more than a week so everything will be done as planned.

Amina A. is holding up well. The break-in cost her a television set, radio system, phones, food flasks, shoes and other small items too. According to her story, she says that maybe the kids forgot to lock the door so they entered and assaulted them physically but luckily everyone is okay now. The boys that they beat up also have recovered. At the time of my visit, she was trying to prepare a meal for her kids. The only positive thing is that she managed to get all the kids back into school and now she can rest a bit.

Hadija’s struggle to walk continues. The cast was taken off the leg and it looked like it was healing as the doctor said but this week the pain increased. She went back to the doctor and was given some pain killers these types of fractures can be funny so they take longer. This week, she was not able to work because of the pain but her sisters as always continued to represent her. She says that she will be back hopefully next week.

This last week was not the very best of weeks as a friend of mine lost his mother and on a few of those days, I had to work and go be with the family every evening until Friday when she was buried. It was a good day to drive as we didn’t have a lot of traffic so as planned everything went well. ISEE wise as well we had a few unlucky scenarios but we made it through and we look forward to a better week ahead. Thank you for always following what we do, we appreciate you. 

Report by;

Andrew Echel

Director of Programs, Uganda

ISEE Solutions Society