By Norah Owaraga | Project Leader and Managing Director
“For me, I live in my mother’s household with our family. Medication is expensive and sometimes we even fail to cover our medical costs, let alone cost of education.” In her voice and in her words, she shared the reason why living conditions of her household need attention and improvement on a fairly wide scale.
Her household does not live a good quality of life, she shared, because they:
“Within our household and our wider community, there is little investment, which needs a bigger capital boost. Members of my family save little. There is shortage of capital to remit savings and this is the reason many shy away from being members of a savings club or group. There is a need for formation of savings groups or clubs in my area. In terms of income generating activities, the ones that we have, we cannot depend on. Worse more, we are discouraged from investing group income generating activities, because there are a lot of irregularities in sharing profits.”
In her voice, in her family’s voice, in her community’s voice she told her story. Her journey is among the reasons why she responded to our call for youth to submit their motivation statements as applications to our Youth Media Training. She is among those who were selected and is currently in training.
During the baseline survey, she shared her story and so did her fellow youth, male and female, from all over Greater Northern Uganda, under training and mentorship at our Dr. Paul Hargrave Memorial Centre in Lira City. They indicated that the situation in their respective households and wider communities on matters savings and investment needs attention.
Her journey, their journey, training to become media change agents, is an opportunity for them to acquire life skills, a craft, which can enable them to earn a living. Against all odds, they persevere. They are burdened with the knowledge that even when they complete their training, in order to make it as professional journalists, photographers, videographers, storytellers of all kinds, they will need significant start up or booster capital.
These youth, media change agents in training, from disadvantaged backgrounds, from households with insufficient savings for investment, will need to find capital for investment. To buy the necessary equipment and gadgets for their trade. An appropriate basic camera used by professionals, for starters, costs at least Ug. Shillings 2,000,000 (about US$ 552). Small loans in Uganda, either by banks, if at all, but mostly now by mobile phone companies are given at usurious rates and for very short periods.
In many communities in Greater Northern Uganda, there is, indeed, an urgent need for community owned loan funds, through which members can save and access loans for investment. This is a clear lesson from her story, told in her voice, in the voice of her family and in the voice of her community. Her story, in fact, likely holds true for many in other parts of her country too.
From her story and the testimonies of media change agents in training, it is evident that they, the youth in training, and other members of their communities, need skilling in financial management and income generation.Together, little by little, we can support her dream of becoming an effective media change agent who advocates for her community; amplifying her voice and the voices of her community for the greater good.
Please consider making a donation in support of young women from disadvantaged backgrounds and yet inspiringly resilient. Your donation, will enable them to access loans for investment and to become self-reliant enterprenuers. Yes, your gift will be a gift that keeps on giving.
Thank you!
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