LEADING CHANGE UGANDA

We started this project in May 2016 with the aim of empowering women between 15 and 30 years of age, who are socially, culturally, and economically disadvantaged in the rural area of Buwali Village, Wakiso district. Our focus has been on economically empowering these women through skills development, breaking the vicious cycle of disadvantage. We also hoped to help make these women stronger and able to resist unfair societal pressures. We wanted to make women in Buwali Village more enterprising, creative and innovative, to enable them change their society and contribute to the economic progress of their community and, importantly, to help them better support their children in acquiring a better education. 

The Wangari Women’s Project equips women with skills in: personal development (5D Cycle of Self-Discovery), identification of human trafficking, child protection, rights and responsibilities training, communication and leadership training, creative arts and innovation training, entrepreneurship and financial training, ICT skills and social networking to improve their employment prospects and success in setting up small businesses.

The project started with a group of 20 members under the name ‘Buwaali Women’s Group’ but we now have 22 members. Today, we’ve been made aware of a good number of other women in the village who would want to join having seen the benefit of the group. ‘As they say, together we can make a difference, whenever we work as a group so much can be achieved’ says the group coordinator Namubiru Florence. She went on to say that they are limited by the fact that if they become too many, this may make it harder for them to realise their dreams. We have found the benefit of starting with small groups. That said, Leading Change Uganda is looking to another group in 2018 to cater for the other women in our community who have shown interest.