Ex-BBC journalists give destitute women a new lease of life

Woma directors Karen Allen and Nora Dennehy talking to one of the trainees. PHOTO/ RACHAEL MABALA 

What you need to know:

  • Since 2005, Woma, a UK-based charity founded by former BBC journalists, has supported women in Uganda, who have been widowed or disadvantaged through war, famine or HIV/Aids.
  • Woma offers educational grants to individual women to help them gain skills to improve their welfare.

Growing up, Shakira Namusoke* never imagined herself as a single teenage mother. She dreamt of studying as far as she could. But fate had a different plot.

When her father died, he left six children in the hands of their mother, who was a typical housewife. After just two years Namusoke dropped out in Senior Three. 

At 17, she became a mother, but her daughter, now 16, has grown without a father, because he died of HIV. 

Meeting Woma
When her daughter was about four years old, Namusoke’s strarted totrain as a tailor. But when her trainer, who was a friend to her mother,  died,  Namusoke stopped training. 

But she refused to surrender to fate, trying several menial jobs: laundry, cleaning compounds, selling potato chips, among others, to survive. 

Many years later, in 2019, a friend told her about an organisation admitting needy women for a tailoring course at Namasuba College of Commerce, on Entebbe Road. Her story: single mother, disadvantaged by HIV/Aids, was an advantage in the selection phase. 

She would be among the first beneficiaries of the first external grant which Canning Trust awarded to Woma—World of Music and Art Assists—to start a pilot project to train disadvantaged women from rural areas. Namusoke felt lucky to have been selected. 
“We were many such women who applied but I am happy I was given a chance.”

However, she had to wait for nearly two years to start training, because covid-19 delayed the programme until November 2021. 

“Seriously, I had given up,” she told Full Woman. “But I was surprised when I received a call confirming my admission.”

Impact 
Namusoke was one of the 11 trainees, some from rural districts such as Jinja in Eastern Uganda, who finished their course in June 2022 and in October 2022, joining thousands of graduates at Namasuba College’s annual graduation. 

From fashion and design, she says she learnt how to make dresses, leather and fabric bags, curtains and uniforms-mostly for girls. 

She admits she mostly learnt the basics, and still struggles making men’s wear but is keen to improve immediately. She uses YouTube tutorials to learn challenging fashions and designs.

“There was a customer who wanted an off-shoulder kitenge, I wasn’t sure how to make it but I didn’t want to miss the job. So YouTube taught me how to draft it and the rest was easy.”
Namusoke plans to get a fixed business location, but as she still works from home, she wants to satisfy her first customers to get referrals. 

Recently a primary school of about all 150, pupils, in her area, contracted her to make girls’ uniforms, while another tailor makes boys’ uniforms. 

“It’s not big money but it is something; a good start,” she said. 
Namusoke’s story reflects those of the many beneficiaries, from as early as 2012. 

About Woma 
Woma is a UK-based charity made up of a small team experienced in working in Africa with a clear focus on helping women across Africa who have been widowed or disadvantaged through war, famine or HIV/Aids.

Woma was founded in 2005 by former BBC journalists Karen Allen and Nora Dennehy during their coverage of the HIV/Aids epidemic in the early 2000’s in Africa. 

Allen and Dennehy were inspired by the courage and resilience of the women they met during their travels who were coping in terrible circumstances. 

The third trustee is Mike Wooldridge, who volunteered in Uganda in the late 1960s, before becoming BBC’s East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi from 1982 to 1989.  Woma offers small educational grants to individual women to help them gain skills that might improve their welfare.

Allen lives in South Africa while Dennehy lives in the UK and they visit the project annually. But partnering with organisations such as National Guidance and Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/Aids (NGEN) Mildmay Uganda, the Institute for Infectious Diseases and Reach a Hand Uganda makes their work easier. 

Because these organisations are on the ground with people living with Hiv/Aids, they are in the best position to advise Woma about where the grants would help most. 

This is how women such as Namusoke are identified as the most disadvantaged among many applicants. 

Taking project to village
After the success of the earlier project Woma decided to take the training to rural districts like Mpigi, with a high incidence of teenage pregnancy. 

Aida Nakaye* calls her first-born “a lovely handsome boy” but sometimes cries in regret. 
“I never wanted to give birth before 27. But I am 24, but my son is making four soon,” she told us.

Her dilemma is understandable. The second-born among two girls and three boys grew up seeing her single mother struggling to provide for them in Katwe, Mpigi.

“She struggled to feed us, pay rent and school fees. Life has been so hard that I stopped in Senior Three, to give my younger siblings a chance to also study,” said Nakaye, one of the 10 trainee tailors at Kawami Vocational Secondary School in Mpigi. 

She and her mother knitted baskets and sold them in the nearby towns. Nakaye and her elder brother also fetched water from swamps and sold it to homesteads to supplement their mother’s miserly income.

“Each carried a 20-litre-jerrican on the head. Sometimes an extra 10 litres for home. And if we didn’t get money today, we could wait for tomorrow.”

They never wasted a hustling opportunity. But sometimes the pain was too much to ignore.
“Sometimes, I could find mum in a corner of the house crying and I asked her what’s wrong? She just saw no way out of this situation,” Nakaye remembers, with a trembling voice. 

“Fortunately, she was able to set up a small bar, where she sells liquor, and makes baskets, while we hustle in other ways.” When Nakaye is not training, she helps her mother out at the bar. “I don’t want to see her struggling again.”

Dennehy interacting with the trainees at Kawami Vocational Secondary School in Mpigi. PHOTO/ RACHAEL MABALA 

Nakaye got tired of making baskets. “You put in so much only to get peanuts,” she said with teary eyes. “And when I heard about this opportunity I did not hesitate. It was like a new door was opening for me. And if I learn, I will also teach my younger sister.” 

Feeling the change 
Nakaye learnt about the training programme from the Mpigi Health Centre in 2020.
But like Namusoke, she had given up, when she finally received a phone message in November 2022 confirming her admission at Kawami. 

Still the training was postponed until February 6, and for the first week, it was just Nakaye, one other girl and their trainer, as the others were still doubtful. 

But when we met them in early March, all had trained for a month. Already Nakaye, the class coordinator, could make a dress and draft a shirt. “I even made a shirt for my son and took it to him. In a 5-metre fabric, which costs Shs30,000, I can make an outfit for my son, a dress for my mother and one for me.”

She said every day she must learn something new or improve on what she has learnt. “And we learn from each other.” 

And soon she will be able to buy necessities like a phone and will not have to buy clothes anymore, because she will make them herself.

Challenges and hopes
In early March, the trainees complained about the dirty water at the training centre, inadequate transport fare, and having to buy fabric. “We believe the problem is with the coordinators,”  they said. 

Woma emphasises saving. But one woman said to attend the training she sacrificed jobs from which she saved Shs20,000 per month with her village Sacco. 

Some wanted to quit. “But we sat down and consoled each other to be patient,” one said. “Even our parents and guardians encouraged us to be patient.”
But everything got better soon as Karen and Nora promised when they visited Kawami in March . 

The future 
Irene Asio* grew up with her stepmother and an unsupportive father she later found out he was not her father.

“Life has been very hard. If we were not tilling people’s gardens in exchange for food, we were in swamps looking for papyrus to make baskets. But after all that hard work, someone would want to buy the basket for less than Shs5000.”

But weeks into training at Kawami, Asio was seeing a future. She had learnt making three different types of skirts and a simple dress.

Besides starting her own business after  the course ends in August, she wants to share the knowledge with others.  “It pains me seeing someone suffering and I cannot help. I went through a lot as a child. So I want to help someone that is completely helpless.” 

The single mother of a three-year old boy also dreams of starting an orphanage to cater for children aged four and bellow. 

 Nakaye’s plans do not differ. “My mum taught me how to make baskets and taught others. Now someone has given me an opportunity to learn tailoring, I must also share it with others and make a change in their lives. It makes me happy,” she said with a shy smile. 

“I don’t wish to see any human being suffering, especially women, because I think we were the reason why mum struggled.” 

Jamila Birungi* 26, found out she had HIV/Aids while pregnant with her second child.
 “I faced segregation, people fear sharing things with you, you know that stigma? So finding a job is really hard for us who live with HIV,” Birungi said.  

Fortunately, her four-year-old boy is negative. But she parted ways with the boy’s father who never wanted her to come for training, yet he could not provide enough for the family. 

“I am working hard to get the skill so I can start my own project and also help those that really need help.”

Graduates are allowed to use the sewing machines for the next six months after training to help them get established in business. After that, a graduate can choose to purchase the machine at half the original price, or return it for other trainees to use.

More than just tailoring
Namusoke, one of the 2022 graduates, said besides tailoring, she learnt business management skills like saving and communication. “They emphasise listening to clients to understand their preferences and advise where necessary.” 

Namusoke knows one job cannot sustain her needs, especially in these hard economic times. “And uniforms are seasonal.” So she does tailoring during the day and in the evening sells potato chips, in Zzana, along Entebbe Road, which enables her to save between Shs8,000 and Shs10,000 daily. 

“They tell us saving is the only way we can plough money into the business and help it grow, “ she said. “And it’s not how much you save that matters. Rather, how consistent you do it.”
Namusoke wants to be self-sufficient and see her daughter, now in Senior Three, achieve her dream of becoming a nurse. 

Other Woma graduates have achieved it. Some are nearly there. She believes she will too. And that’s the kind of impact Nora and Karen dreamt of 18 years ago when they founded this charity. 

(* All trainee names altered to hide their identity)