SUPPORT MICRO SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN UGANDA

Kigezi Healthcare Foundation (KIHEFO) has been supporting families to join community cooperatives that in turn supports their small enterprises through savings and credits, so many families have joined Craft Cooperatives, Mushroom Cooperatives, Vegetables Cooperatives , Rabbit Cooperatives and many others to uplift their livelihoods. This has been emphasized by the active presence of members’ spouses. Due to the ever demanding roles women have to play in a typical household such as looking after the children and farming, their cooperative journey becomes a difficult one without the active support of their husbands since concerns like; where are you getting the money? You are going to be unruly often pop up jeopardizing the peace in their families if the husbands don’t get actively involved. 

Undeniably, most efforts have been put to encourage women to join cooperatives though less have been directed to factors that keep them there. Support from spouses is one pillar that KIHEFO cannot under look. Studies have emphasized that support from husbands is very important with emotional support (belief and empowerment) and financial contribution topping the list. With the ever impact teaching sessions in the communities on the importance of involvement of spouses in the cooperatives, this month has had a whooping turn up of 56 husbands joining the cooperatives. This is going to yield a lot of advantages that include the following:

l Emotional support

l Financial contribution

l Improved family income.

l Better pooling of resources. Etc

 Of the 56 men, 42 have joined the rabbit cooperatives group, 1 vegetable cooperatives, 3 crafts cooperatives, 1 mushrooms cooperatives and 9 multi purpose cooperative group that buys items from the smaller cooperatives.  We have organized trainings for the husbands mainly on record keeping and effective savings culture.  We have also trained them on how to plan before borrowing and how to plan the repayment schedule.The wives were excited about their husbands joining as they now beheld economical transformation that was a dream starting to become a reality. The husbands cited stereotype false beliefs such as “you cannot join together with your wife, she will disobey you” as the ropes that were holding them back. After the training sessions, the husbands testified to lacking enough information on the importance of spouse involvement and vowed to invite their friends because they were missing out a lot. This move has the potential to lift families out of poverty and also mitigate the factors working against the progress of women joining the cooperatives since many cited their husband’s ignorance as a barrier.

In a nutshell, steps on increasing the potential ,production and value addition have been taken hence efforts towards an inclusive middle income country.