SDFUSSUNU
>
Oeganda
Vivian Ulea had lost hope of ever finding a job. The 29-year-old woman of Besia village in Moyo, Northern Uganda, had dropped out of
Senior Four due to lack of school fees.
With no means to sustain herself, she depended on
her grandmother for such basic items as soap and food. But poverty was rife.
Her grandmother, like most people in the village, was a subsistence farmer.
When the rains delayed and the harvest failed, she could no longer take care of
her.
Vivian had no other option but to get married. Little
did she know that she would jump from the frying pan into the fire. Her husband
neglected and mistreated her. The situation became so bad that she ran back to
her grandmother.
That’s when she got the idea of standing up for
herself and enrolling in a tailoring course. She was motivated by fellow
village women who were running successful businesses and able to support their
families on their own.
“Having witnessed several women in
my village being able to take full responsibility for their children by
operating sewing machines inspired me,” she says.
In 2019, she followed a three-month training course
at Moyo Community Polytechnic. The training was organised by Community
Empowerment for Rural Development and financed by the Skills Development Fund.
Vivian now rents a room in Moyo town where she
operates a sewing machine. She earns between 20,000 and 25,000 Ugandan
Shillings a week from making clothes. The money enables her to pay her rent,
buy basic needs and support her grandmother.
The fact that she no longer has to rely on other
people has increased her confidence. She now socialises freely and has made
many friends.
In the future, she wants to train other people in
tailoring to supplement her income. With the additional money, she plans to buy
land, build a house and go back to school.
Since 2019, a total of 1.731 young people have
benefited from the Skills Development Fund in Northern Uganda under the German
Agency for International Cooperation.
Like Vivian, they were able to move from a life of
poverty and dependency to self-reliance and happiness.
Geen nieuws