Women To The Rescue
Through their charity drive, this group of women sought out up to 11 families and bought each family food items worth UGX 250.000 each.
Picture this, a single dad with a severe case of diabetes that has since led to the amputation of his foot. Yeah? Now imagine a world where such a father, despite his efforts, can’t earn a living to provide for his three children. See, unlike the other market venders who walk for miles to the market, he couldn’t go to work because any and all public means had been ordered off the road in line with the lock down.
True, these were the kind of people that the Federation for Women in Action (FOWA) reached out and helped last week. Through their charity drive, this group of women sought out up to 11 families and bought each family food items worth UGX 250.000 each. In fact, each family’s predicament was no far from the others; they were in dire need. Besides the father of three mention above, below are some of the families they reached out to.
A single mum with 5 children (3 girls and 2 boys aged 10-18yrs.) who had been thrown out of their home due to rent dues. Her eldest child, 18yrs, was in P7 but got pregnant and now has a newborn baby. While the church got them a temporary room to live in. So the mum started washing clothes for people to earn a living, but now everyone is at home and washing their own clothes so she has no job.
Single mother of 3, living on her own in Kitintale. Used to work at a soap factory earning daily wages. Factory is closed due to covid19. Her and kids are now surviving on porridge.
Single mum who used to roast plantain and maize on the roadside in the evenings, but can’t due to the 7pm curfew that came with the lock down. She has three children to feed; two teenager works and pre-teen, and was out of options.
Single mother, in her 40s, works as hawker for smoked fish, but had to halt that since public transport was cancelled. With two little girls both in primary school to feed, this mother and her children would have gone hungry.
A 32 year old mother who cleans houses for a living found herself without work, as everyone is now opting to do the work themselves. This mother of three who stays in Maule-Nangabo was stuck, and lucky for her, this group identified her.
Single mother aged 44 years with 4 kids found herself unable to continue hawking clothes for a living. Soon, he couldn’t afford rent and food for her and her four children until help reached her way.
An elderly lady whose foot was amputated due to diabetes who was abandoned by her husband and left to fend for two children, some of who are single young mothers with no source of income. The help couldn’t have come at a better time for her.
The other beneficiary was an HIV positive widow and mother of four children. Before the lock down, she walked around doing laundry for different people, but no client needs her services now. Despite being on ARVs and needing food for the treatment to work better, she had been going hungry when the group found her.
By CivSource Team