CLD stories #1: Empowering mothers

Morgan is an intern with CLD right now & he recently sent through some stories of the women they're working alongside to create some sustainable businesses providing income to care for their families. I wanted to share these with you as they give a picture of everyday life in Kampala and with Come, Let's Dance:

I realize that I've been kind of quiet recently but we've been really busy lately. Some of you might remember our friend Fravia in the slums. We gave her a loan last year for about 80,000 shillings (about $50) to expand her food business and she payed it back in about a quarter of the time that we originally planned for her. She's great at managing her money and she makes the best samosas (fried bread pockets filled with meat or veggies) in the country. Well, Ricardo, one of the guys here, raised a bunch of money to build Fravia a new house outside of the slums. Right now Fravia does all her cooking for her and her daughters, and all the cooking for her business in her little house that's barely big enough for a bed, a mattress on the floor and a small cabinet. Plus, the money that she's spending on rent makes it very difficult for her to pay the school fees for her two daughters. She has enough, but just barely. So, this last week, we've been building Fravia's new house. It's not much bigger than her old one in Katanga, but she owns the land now, she is going to have a cemented veranda in front to cook on (we're building it tomorrow) and there's room for her to add on to her house in the future if she wants to. Also, this new location is perfect because she'll still be able to sell her samosas at Makerere University and at Mulago hospital where she has been selling them, but she'll be able to sell them in the town of Nabweru where she lives now as well. So it's been really exciting for us to see her move out of the slums. Her house isn't quite finished yet, but it should be completed by tomorrow.
We're also moving along with some of the other women in the slums too. We have several that we've been working with lately, building the friendship and trust that is essential in order for us to give out loans for businesses, and we should be ready to start a few of the businesses this week. The first one is Jjajja Florence. This woman is a rockstar and already has such a huge blessing. Her blessing is that she doesn't pay rent on her house as it was given to her by a friend who moved away & doesn't seem to be returning any time soon. Jjajja Florence doesn't have the title to the land, so it's not as solid as if it was actually owned by her, but it's still such a huge blessing that her and her family can be living there without paying rent. Florence's business is that she sells little banana pancakes called Kabalagalas and another bread treat called Mandazzi. But the issue is that she has AIDS so her business has almost collapsed. People with AIDS here are sick very frequently with other illnesses and they can only work when they're well. So, because Florence was sick so often, people started going elsewhere to buy stuff instead of her because her business was open so inconsistently. Now, however, she is on ARVs [Antiretroviral drugs] and is able to work everyday. She just needs a small loan to get back on her feet, so we're hopefully going to give her that soon.
Another woman that we've been working with a lot is a woman named Madina. Madina is the mother to a little boy named Sam who is about 2 years old. Madina cooks some casava and other stuff as full meals for people that want to come buy from her, but right now she works for another guy who provides all her capital like pots and pans and things like that. Which means that she does all the work of cooking and buying the ingredients to keep the business going, but only gets some of the money. So, we're going to give her a small loan, just enough for her to buy her own pots and pans and cooking materials so that the business can then be her own. Hopefully, we'll be able to give these loans out sometime this week, after Fravia's house is done. Once those loans are given out, we can start concentrating on spending more time with the next few people on our list, while still maintaining the relationships we have with these women and keeping an eye on the businesses they are running to make sure that they are doing well enough to support themselves and their families, and to have some money to set aside for the future.
Another woman in the slums that we've been visiting some this last week is this woman named Rose. Rose is doing fairly well financially, she owns her house (three rooms) and she owns her own salon. However, she is having troubles of another kind though. Rose has four kids of her own and she also takes care of some other family members, such as their cousin Brian. Total, she has eight people that she is supporting by herself, so even with owning her house and business, she's still just barely scraping by. But her main issues are not financial ones. Her neighbors, for some reason, are constantly ridiculing her and her family. I don't know why they do that, but that's hard for anyone, no matter where you live. Her daughter Aminah has been sick, for a year she couldn't see or hear and didn't have the strength to stand. Aminah is somehow better now. She can see and hear just fine but she still feels weak. But the biggest issue has been her son Jovan. Jovan was sitting in his exams to finish S6, which is the equivalent of our graduating high school when he started having psychological issues. He vandalized his mother's shop, attacked his cousin, and threatened to kill his mother multiple times. Because of this he was put into a mental hospital for two months & was just let out this past week. I didn't want Rose to go pick him up from the hospital by herself, so I went with her.
Jovan is now home though and he's doing well. We went to visit him on Friday and he's still somehow weak, but he's coherent and very happy to be home. He told us how grateful he is for his mother and the support of his loving family and he says that he's very honored to have so many new brothers and sisters in Christ that are praying for him and his family and that he will be praying for us as well.

I love these stories and can't wait to meet these amazing women! Hopefully in a couple months I'll be able to share more & their pictures as well.