What are your memories of being 12 years old? You may be thinking of the joy (or angst) of being in middle school, learning new things and gaining independence. The impactful and concise Girl Effect illuminates why age 12 is the turning point in a girl’s life in the developing world. At this age, girls with a solid primary education – and most critically, the financial means – can continue to secondary school. But for a very large portion of the population, this is the end of their educational career. 70% of the world’s 130 million out-of-school youth are girls. This makes age 12 the dividing line between a life of poverty and a hopeful future.
Consider:
- When a girl in the developing world receives 7 or more years of education, she marries 4 years later and has 2.2 fewer children.
- An extra year of secondary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 15-25%.
(Source: www.thegirleffect.org)
By staying in school through their teenage years, girls align themselves for future social and health benefits. Educated girls and women are less vulnerable to HIV infection, human trafficking and other forms of exploitation, have children who are more likely to go to school, and make important contributions to family income. There is other compelling data from the Population Council to suggest that the longer a girl stays in school, the better her life will be because she will spend far fewer hours engaged in household labor.
Making it Possible to Stay in School
At BeadforLife, our goal is to empower impoverished Ugandan women with our entrepreneurial training program. But we also think about the girls who will become these women, so we launched a Girls’ Education Program. In the 2011-12 school year, we identified and funded 30 exceptional students who would not otherwise be able to continue with their education. Awino Colline is one of them.
Awino Colline from BeadforLife on Vimeo.
Awino Colline is a bright-eyed, slender 17-year-old girl with a big role to play. As the eldest girl in a family where her father has HIV, the responsibility of the home and garden in the village of Agwing in Otuke District are left to Colline and her mother. Colline has to make sure her five siblings are comfortable and well cared for. She fetches water and collects firewood for cooking. During the planting season, Colline borrows a neighbor’s plough to clear their garden and, in turn, does gardening for him.
Colline’s hard work and determination are not only seen at home. Due to her chores and the long running civil war disturbance in Northern Uganda, she missed some years of school and started secondary school late. However, Colline has made tremendous improvement in her grades and is one of the brightest students in her class at St. Mary’s Magdalene Girl’s School in Lira District. Her goal is to become a nurse, “so I can treat sick people in my village.”
Tags: Africa, Education, Empowering Girls, Empowering Women
Did you know that “over the past decade six of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries were African?”
Did you know that “In eight of the past ten years, Africa has grown faster than East Asia, including Japan?”
Did you know that “Africa now has a fast-growing middle class?”
Did you know that Africa “has more than 600m mobile-phone users—more than America or Europe?” –Economist, “Africa Rising”
When we read about Africa, we often read a lot about what’s gone wrong: war, civil strife, hunger, poverty, disease, corruption, and the list goes on. However, as pointed out above, there is A LOT going right in Africa too. Read more about Africa and how it’s moving into the future by clicking on the link to an article from the December 3rd Economist entitled “Africa Rising”
It can often becom
e overwhelming working to eradicate extreme poverty. What continually lights our motivational fire is hearing incredible stories of those who use their time and talents to take action. For the past few weeks, we have had the opportunity to work with Daniel, a 5th grade teacher from Houston, TX. What is encouraging about Daniel and two of his students, Deidra and Daniela, is their passion. Through their tireless effort teaching their community about extreme poverty, they have inspired others to take action.
Daniel, Deidra, and Daniela worked each day before and after school, as well as during lunch, to reach their goal of raising $1,000.00 for an organization called Charity: Water. By reaching their goal, the class raised enough money to bring clean water to 50 people in developing countries. They created a donation page on charity: water’s website, taught BeadforLife’s curriculum on extreme poverty, and hosted a Fundraising with Curriculum BeadParty, which donated 20% of their sales to a charity of their choice.
We, as an organization, are in awe of the hard work of these three individuals. We applaud them for their commitment to ending extreme poverty, and hope it inspires you to take action! Click here to see a slide show sharing Daniel, Deidra, and Daniela’s story, and a few pictures of their presentation.
Presentation to Class
Tags: BeadCircle, BeadforLife, BeadParty, Curriculum, Fundraising with Curriculum, Poverty Education, students
BeadforLife is excited to share stories of three amazing women from our newest group of bead makers, Favor. These women are changing their lives and providing food, schooling and hope for their children. We are so inspired by them and know you will be to.
Meet Rosette:
Rosette
Rosette is a 34 year old widowed mother of 6 children whose ages range from 2 to 17 years old. Sadly her husband died 2 years ago due to injuries he sustained while in prison. She now has to support their 6 children alone. Tears come to her eyes as she tells of how he died a month after being released from jail.
Rosette always wanted to be a hairdresser but couldn’t afford the rent to open a salon. Not sure how she was going to support her family, she resorted to selling charcoal. She soon discovered the dust from the charcoal is not good for her health and can cause serious chest and breathing problems.
Rosette soon discovered BeadforLife. She’s now a bead maker and earns a good income. She plans on using her income to set up her very own salon and build a house for her and her children. Rosette is a very optimistic woman and we at BeadforLife can’t wait to see how she changes her and her family’s lives through her hard work and creativity.
Meet Teopista:
Teopista
Teopista is an enthusiastic and lively 54 year-old woman. In the past she earned money by selling food from her house. She has raised 5 children and now looks after her late brother’s children, ages 11 – 16.
Teopista was excited to learn about the opportunities provided by BeadforLife – to earn a steady income by making beautiful beads from recycled paper. When asked what she wanted to achieve during her time in the program, Teopista answered, ‘I have been renting the same house since 1987. I am tired of renting and I plan to build a house of my own.’
Through BeadforLife’s entrepreneurial training, Teopista would like to learn about starting her own wholesale and retail groundnut (peanut) business. Groundnuts are a popular food and she is sure she will be successful. She is an outstanding woman, with big dreams.
Meet Jessica:
- Jessica
she earns about 80,000 shillings (approximately $30 USD) by knitting socks and selling vegetables from her home. She is excited about BeadforLife and is determined to work hard. She plans on investing the money she earns as a bead maker into her vegetable business. Her goal is to earn enough money so she can send her children to school and provide for her family’s needs. She also hopes to build a house for her family.
Some of Jessica’s children stay with her mother. As much as her mother wants to help she is elderly and can’t afford to look after her children. Jessica is happy to know that with the income she earns from her bead sales, she will be able to send some money to her mother so that they too can have their needs met.
If you’re interested in helping women like Rosetta, Teopista and Jessica leave poverty behind, here are three easy ways to help:
By BeadforLife Volunteer, Karen McKenna
Nayiwemula Edith used to dig in other people’s gardens to make enough money to send one of her five children to school. She now owns two acres of land in a village in eastern Uganda where she plants maize and rice. The profit from these crops, along with income from selling her handmade jewelry to BeadforLife, means she is now able to afford school fees for more of her children, including her daughters.
When asked how BeadforLife has changed her life, Nayiwemula says before BeadforLife she was “so poor and miserable you could cry.” She never dreamed of owning nice clothes or a house. Less than a year later, Nayiwemula is constructing a sturdy brick house of her own. She will soon move out of the small, mud hut she is currently living in and into her beautiful new home.
Nayiwemula says “when people look at the way I am progressing they are admiring me so much!” She proudly shows off her new mattress and bedsheets, two items she has been able to purchase because of her membership in BeadforLife’s program. Her smile radiates joy and happiness as she leads us into her home to show us her mattress, which thanks to BeadforLife’s health exchange program, is now covered in a bright green mosquito net to protect her from getting malaria.
Nayiwemula has big plans for her future. She recognizes the importance of savings and vows not to use her income on purchases like fancy food and hairstyles. She is currently participating in a BeadforLife agri-business pilot project and has planted two acres of beans and maize this season. She also hopes to start a poultry business one day.
Nayiwemula is a great example of how your support is helping impoverished Ugandan women leave poverty behind.
According to United Nations the 7 billionth person was born this week.
CNN recently posted an article entitled: How women defused population bomb. In his article, Fred Pearce talks about how “women today are having half as many children as their mothers and grandmothers. The global average is now down to 2.5 children per woman, and it continues to fall.” This however, is not the case in many parts of Africa where rural women still “typically have 5 or more children.”
The average number of children per Ugandan woman is 7.
Uganda is on track to having the world’s highest population growth on the planet and all of these conversations about the 7 billionth person being born got us thinking about how our work – sending young girls to school – can affect change. According to Girleffect.org by educating young girls you give her the opportunity to raise her standard of living for herself and her family. You give her the tools she needs to make educated decisions about when she wants to have children and how many children she wants to have.
In fact, data has shown that girls education is one of the biggest levers for change. When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children. (United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 1990.)
In a country like Uganda, less people equals less poverty.
BeadforLife believes in the value of education for girls, and in 2011 we started a new school sponsorship program for bright but impoverished girls. Using national exam results, BeadforLife selected 30 girls who were at the very top of their classes, but who could not continue on to secondary school because their families could not afford the fees. BeadforLife placed these girls at private boarding schools where they can get a great education which will change their lives.
Because…
“When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.” (Chris Fortson, “Women’s Rights Vital for Developing World,” Yale News Daily 2003.)
BeadforLife is committed to sponsoring these girls for as long as they continue to excel academically, and will enroll 30 new girls each year.
“The world’s worst forgotten humanitarian crisis” according to former U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Jan Egeland, was northern Uganda. Mr. Egeland made this remark in 2006 and while northern Uganda “is dramatically different than it was in 2006,” the effects of Joseph Kony’s reign of terror can be felt when you talk to many of the members of BeadforLife’s Shea Project.
Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army has been forced out of northern Uganda but Kony’s reign of terror continues across several other African nations including the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Unfortunately Kony’s unwillingness to engage in the peace process or sign The Juba Peace Process’ Final Peace Agreement (FPA), means he’s still terrorizing thousands of others, including the children he kidnaps and forces to become soldiers or, for the girls, sex slaves.
BeadforLife’s Executive Director and Co-Founder, Devin Hibbard has this to say about the US decision to deploy 100 troops to Africa:
“I absolutely support Obama’s decision to send troops to Uganda. I’ve met so many people in northern Uganda who suffered horrible atrocities because of the LRA. Capturing Joseph Kony will prevent thousands of children from having their lives destroyed,” Says Hibbard, who lived in Uganda for four years.
“People need to understand the extent of suffering the LRA has inflicted on a helpless population. I would support even more US intervention to end this horrible conflict.”
In an article written by Cara Jones at the Huffington Post:
“Justification for intervention is easily traceable to Obama’s signing of the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009, which “expressed support for increased, comprehensive U.S. efforts to help mitigate and eliminate the threat posed by the LRA to civilians and regional stability.”
“There is the potential to bring some stability to a long-suffering area. There is the fact that LRA leader Joseph Kony is a particularly vicious character who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for numerous crimes against humanity, including murder and child abuse. There is, also, the LRA’s proximity to the Horn of Africa and particularly Somalia, a country now known mainly for its failed state, its piracy, and its export of terrorism.”
To read more about other nonprofit’s support for President Obama’s troop deployment to Africa, please read this article by NPR.
To help the women of northern Uganda who have been affected by the LRA please consider hosting a BeadParty or buying their shea butter products. It’s one way to help them rebuild their lives after 20 years of terror.
The women of BeadforLife's Shea Project praying
By Irene Namaganda, Membership Coordinator, BeadforLife
As the person responsible for BeadforLife’s membership recruitment process in Uganda I have preconceived ideas of who would be a good fit in our program. I would not, for example, be looking at women carrying a nice hand bag, wearing a pretty dress or living in a fancy house. My eye is trained to look for women coming home from the market carrying a plastic bag with a baby strapped to her back or perhaps living in the slums in a tiny mud row house with dirty trenches running along the side.
So imagine my surprise when I was visiting the slums and Juliet Nagayi, a nicely dressed woman with makeup and high heels, walks out of one of those tiny, one room mud row houses. It turns out Juliet is living in one of these tiny, one room house with her 2 daughters, 2 year-old son and her husband (who is employed carrying people’s luggage at the bus station).
Although her polished appearance is different than most living around here, her story is a similar one…
Juliet was born one of 11 children and at the young age of 29 she is already supporting many of her siblings and her mother. When she was younger her mother couldn’t pay her fees so she only has an elementary school education. Like many other young women in the developing world, she had no choice but to get married at the age of 14.
Juliet began dreaming of becoming a hairstylist and together with her brother, saved enough money to construct a small, one-room hair salon. She bought some old hairdryers, a few hair treatments and started her hair salon. She was now the co-owner of a small salon and her life was improving. Each day she remained motivated to succeed by one reason: her children.
Unfortunately the owner of the land she rented for her salon from sold it without notice and with no compensation. Life started getting harder again and Juliet asked herself “how am I going to survive?”
Juliet’s biggest battle is staying out of poverty. She has been in this cycle long enough and wonders aloud, “when will it end?” After meeting me and hearing about BeadforLife’s 18 month program, Juliet quoted a Luganda proverb, “You don’t curse your place of birth before you die.” Hearing this I knew Juliet had received her answer.
Juliet is now excited about this chance to change her life. She recently completed her bead making and numeracy lessons and soon will start earning money as a bead maker and begin expanding her small business so she can take care of her children and fulfill her dreams.
BeadforLife is blessed with people who care to bring a smile to the face of the vulnerable, hope to a struggling mother and ease the suffering of the needy. Members of the BeadCircle care enough to make our world a better place. You search deep in your hearts and you dare to look poverty in the eye and say we won’t accept it anymore. There aren’t enough words to express the joy and gratitude from the members of our program that receive your gift. You answer heartache with love and we thank you.
One room mud row house
The trenches in a Kampala slum
Since the beginning of the year, the Uganda currency has been falling against the dollar. 
When I moved to Uganda in 2008, you could get about 1600 shillings per dollar. Now the rate is around 2900. Imagine if two years ago you spent $5.50 for a sandwich and today it cost you $10 – that is what the Ugandan people are experiencing. The Ugandan shilling has now been rated the worst currency in the world.
This inflation hits the poor the hardest because they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on basic needs like food and shelter. For those living in extreme poverty, this doesn’t mean cutting back on the luxuries as much as forgoing essentials- going from two to one meal a day for example.
This situation led BeadforLife to increase the amount we pay the beaders by over 20% in order to support our innovative program model. However, as people continue to feel the pain, protests against the government are growing and people are voicing their discontent. There is a general feeling that those in power are getting richer, while everyone else is falling behind.protests by opposition groups have been met by government crack downs including arrests and brutality.
The New York Times had a good feature last week capturing popular opposition to the Ugandan government.
Tags: Africa, Beaders, BeadforLife, Child Poverty, Kampala, poverty, Poverty Eradication, sustainability, Uganda