In the second part of the series on the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP), The EagleOnline brings you the success story of the women engaged in Cocoa buying in Bundibugyo.
Women stroll down the hills in droves to Harugale sub county headquarters Bughendera County in Bundibugyo district. They are members of one of the groups that have received funding from the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) and sister programme Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) to start enterprises of their choice.
They gather at the sub county headquarters to welcome the minister of Gender Labour and social development Hajat Janat Balunzi Mukwaya, whose ministry is responsible for the programmes. The minister has been on a performance monitoring visit in the districts of Kasese, Bundibugyo, Kibaale and Kyenjojo, all in Midwestern Uganda.
Like in other parts of the country where the Minister has been on performance monitoring visits, women are always happy to receive and thank her especially because their groups have been funded or are lined up for funding.
But at the Harugale sub county meeting, there is this aging woman who will not hide her appreciation that government is finally extending support women to start business. She is not a direct beneficiary of the programmes though. The woman, later identified as Biira Kihire Mukirane, pushes her way to the front and raises her hand: “Honorable minister I am not a member of any of the groups that received funding, but a neighbor to some beneficiary group members,” she says.
There is a bit of silence in the hall with participants wondering about what complaint she is about to make.
“Honorable minister when the beneficiaries get money all of us in the community benefit, they have been buying my produce such as vegetables and I benefit that way. Thank you very much, we are very happy that is why I came,” says Ms. Mukirane.
65 year old Kabugho Dorisi, a member of North Rwenzori Development Initiative Group in Izahura village Bupomboli Parish of Harugari Sub County is all smiles. Her group received five million shillings from the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme and they have since ventured into Cocoa buying.
“I used to suffer a lot but now I can buy some fish; I could not afford that before” says Ms. Kabugho.
Kabugho’s husband passed on and by virtue of being a widow she took charge of the family cocoa plantation but her problem was how to survive between Cocoa seasons which occur only once a year. It was hard, she says, adding that besides being aged she also needed money to pay people to help harvest the crop.
In Bundibugyo its common practice for business people to pay off a Cocoa plantation owner in advance and wait for the harvest. So when her group received money from UWEP they did not look far because Ms. Kabugho was willing and ready to hire out her plantation to the group.
Against such a background, Minister Mukwaya says once the women are empowered homes improve.
“Men are always thinking of big things like buying a motorcycles and bicycles etc but things like salt, cooking oil or even onions and fish as in the case of Dorisi will not bother them,” the Minister says.
She also thanked the residents for feeding their children well.
“You know I am also minister for children and I have noticed the children are looking healthy. If a child is not fed well (to 3 years) after that even if you give them a whole chicken you will be wasting time; the damage will have already been done,” says Minister Mukwaya, herself a mother and grandmother
Jacqueline Kunira, another member, is on the road to becoming a house owner at 36 years. For a woman in Bundibugyo that is no mean achievement. The Cocoa business has been booming and indeed there are visible signs if the brick and iron sheet houses on the hills are anything to go by.
Unfortunately, this is not equitably trickling down to the women because most of the Cocoa plantations belong to the men and in effect, the houses accrued from the proceeds.
However, thanks to funding from the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) the women are positioning themselves to tap into the Cocoa wealth.
Indeed, if they cannot own the plantations for now, at least they are able to buy and sell the cocoa to big companies or hire a plantation for some time and get the proceeds.
