|
Stories of the Empowered
Imagine not thinking about the future, having any hopes or dreams, or a plan for achieving them. If you are living day to day, focused only on survival, then you are not able to invest time or energy planning for the future. By paying school tuition and related expenses for a group of exceptional students each year, BeadforLife is opening up the idea of a future to these young women in Uganda.
We invite you to meet a few of the bright and motivated students that BeadforLife is currently sending to secondary school in Uganda. You will find these young women are very engaging and, best of all, looking toward their future! Read carefully and you will find the words “goal”, “dream” and “future.” Also, we feature the stories of a BeadforLife member and a BeadParty host – both excellent examples of empowered women!
Awino Colline
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 the 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. When asked about her future goals, she said “I want to become a nurse so I can treat sick people in my village”.
Akello Vicky
Orphaned at a young age, Akello Vicky, now 16, doesn’t know how her parents died. Her relatives never discuss the subject. When the war in Northern Uganda reached its worst point, her family of eight together with a few relatives was forced to flee to Apach District. What she remembers most are the bad conditions she lived in for three years in a camp, where she never went to school because her entire family worked in a garden in exchange for food.
The effects of the war and the difficult times she has experienced have taken their toll on Vicky. She hides her beautiful smile in a worried look most of the time. But she loves school, and is a star student at St. Mary’s Magdalene Girl’s School in Lira District. Her dream is to make a difference in her village so that all girls can go to school.
Nanyanzi Lillian
“My husband is wasting his money on you” Nanyanzi Lillian often heard in recent years. Born to a family of subsistence maize farmers with seven mouths to feed, Lillian’s parents could not afford to provide her schooling. The maize they grow also constitutes the main portion of the family’s diet. Lillian was taken to the city to live with an uncle who paid her school fees for 5 years. However, her Aunt did not approve of him helping this young girl and berated her. She turned her into a house maid, didn’t pay the school fees on time, and as a result, Lillian spent more time at home than at school.
Fortunately, Lillian moved back to Iganga to live with another uncle. Despite the tough times she went through, this sweet 14 year old girl managed to get a high examination grade to admit her to secondary school. Lillian now goes to Wanyange Girl’s School in Iganga District and says she would like to become an accountant in the future because “I want to be able to help my sisters and brothers to go to school.”
Before BeadforLife
Furaha is a 26 year old woman who comes from Congo. She attended elementary school for just three years. She got married as a young woman, had a small baby and was pregnant again when conflict overtook her village. The Rwandan army was hunting the Hutu ethnic group who had fled from Rwanda after the genocide to avoid prosecution. The army often used heavy handed tactics and civilians were caught in the middle, as was Christine’s village in 2006.
When the army invaded the village Christine lived in, she fled to the jungle with her 1 year old baby and was separated from her husband. She was forced to live there for 2 weeks, foraging for food and sleeping in a temporary structure. After about 2 weeks, Christine walked to a nearby road and caught a bus into Uganda. She met another woman from Congo who took her to live in a slum of Kampala, and paid her 2000 shillings ($1 USD) a day to do manual labor in her fields. At this point, Christine didn’t know if her husband was dead or alive, but wanted to create a future for her two children.
In addition to working in the field, she also began working for a man with a sewing machine. She would sew and he would give her 30% of whatever profits her products made.
Since Enrolling with BeadforLife
When she first made contact with BeadforLife, she was still living in the slum, but had been reunited with her husband who also made his way to Uganda and eventually found her. When she was accepted into BeadforLife’s program, she took a loan and purchased a plot of land to move her family onto. With her BeadforLife earnings, she was able to pay off the loan and now owns the land outright.
With three businesses to her name, Furaha is a very energetic entrepreneur!
- Tailor: She sells Katenges (large multi-purpose cloths that are used as clothing, baby slings, sheets etc.) from which she earns 50,000 schillings ($25) a month.
- Yam Farmer: She now farms 5 pieces of land growing yams, which she sells in the local markets. Through her earnings, she has been able to purchase 3 of these outright, and she rents the 2 others. She estimates that she earns 300,000 schillings ($150) from all of her gardens.
- Landlord: She has purchased a second house that has two rooms, which she plans to prepare for rentals at 35,000 schillings ($17.50) per room per month.
Earnings Summary
Before BeadforLife: $30/month
After BeadforLife: $210/month (that’s 7x more earnings!)
Christine says:
“Thank you and thank BeadforLife. I can’t believe where you got me from. At the first meeting, they told us to dream what we could achieve. But even that dream I had didn’t come close to what I have accomplished now. I don’t know how to say thank you, but I am very grateful. I know when I graduate, I will be happy.”
Milou Lammers has hosted two BeadParties in her young life and raised over $9000 for BeadforLife, all before graduating from high school! Milou hosted her first BeadParty in 2007, after receiving a BeadforLife bracelet from her father. Milou’s continued passion for the mission of BeadforLife motivated her to host another BeadParty in Spring, 2011 at her K-12 school. Students from all ages got involved from kindergarteners to seniors and teachers too! Everyone in her senior class was so enthusiastic about BeadforLife that they decided to make BeadforLife one of the beneficiaries of their Senior Class Gift!
Milou’s own words show the feeling of empowerment she has gained through this project, particularly her reference to being a “role model.”
This successful BeadParty host writes, “As an eighteen year old I am about to enter the world of adulthood, head off to college, and meet new people. I am also expected to act like an adult, which in my mind means to give back to those who need help and to appreciate the little things in life. I hope to be a role model for those who are younger than me and might be inspired by my actions.
I had always promised myself I would host another BeadParty when the opportunity arose, and sure enough during my senior year there it was. My school has a Fine Arts Festival each year which showcases student work and brings the entire school community together. In one short week from selling at the festival and hosting my own BeadParty at my house I raised over $4,000 for BeadforLife. But that wasn't the only accomplishment, my entire school began asking questions and even a kindergartener I am friends with, Sarah (6 years old) has decided that she wants to host a BeadforLife BeadParty within the lower school next year when she is in first grade.
Hosting a BeadParty has been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things I have done in my life and I know that this will definitely not be my last project with BeadforLife.”
We appreciate Milou’s dedication to empowering herself and others! The amount she raised could send 13 girls her age to school in Uganda. BeadforLife could not offer the women in Uganda the opportunities we do, without young women like Milou!
|
