Peter has the distinction of being the first man to be enrolled with BeadforLife.  He thinks that’s just great.  His is the story of overcoming the odds through tenacity.  His father was a Tanzanian soldier who came with the invading army when Tanzania responded to Idi Amin’s invasion.   For a time his father stayed in Uganda, but ultimately he returned to his native country, leaving Peter and his mother.

In Ugandan village society, you are supposed to live with your father’s relatives.  Once Peter’s mother remarried he had no rightful place in his stepfather’s house and so he was chased away by his half siblings.

Coming to Kampala as an unskilled rural adolescent was daunting.  Peter managed to find work as a night watchman, which paid him $45 a month for a 7-day-a-week job.  Fortunately for him, he was assigned to the house of Torkin Wakefield, co-founder of BeadforLife. Soon he was rolling beads while sitting in his guardhouse, and making money.

Like the prodigal son, Peter retuned to his village in nice clothes, clearly a successful man by village standards.  “My life has changed my heart,” he says. “I‘m going ahead.  I’m a big man in my village now.  Like a minister! Those who were seeing me bad now ask me for money.  Villagers that chased me away now see that I have knowledge.”

Through the entrepreneurial training and grant program, Peter has started two businesses.  He buys huge sacks of golden onions from his village area each month and sells them wholesale in Kampala.  He also imports beautiful woven handbags from Kenya and sells those to shops.  Peter is also a loved member of the BeadforLife staff, working with the inventory team.  Always volunteering to do whatever needs to be done, Peter is now full of energy and hope.   He recently married his long-term sweetheart, Esther, who assists him in rolling beads.