Provide Vocational Training for Ugandan Women

With hard work and fierce determination, Aida has been building a better life for herself, and for her children, for nearly 35 years.

Aida grew up in Padibo in Northern Uganda with her parents and siblings.  She attended school through Primary 5, but then her family lacked the money for her to continue.

She met and married her husband, a pastor, in the North.  As they witnessed the violence of the war and mourned the death of many family members, her husband feared for their safety.  They fled to the Acholi Quarter where other relatives had come to resettle.  When they first reached the Quarter, she felt a sense of relief.  “We got a house to rent and I slept very well for the first time in a long time.  I did not have fear of being killed.”

Aida was safe, but life was far from easy.  For many years, she struggled working in the perilous conditions of the stone quarry – dangerous and grueling labor.  On the side, she brewed the local beer to earn more money.

Aida and her husband have four children of their own and are the guardians for her four nieces and nephews who were orphaned when her siblings perished in the war.   

“I have hope that my children will be successful.  They are well-behaved and do well in school,” boasts Aida, with pride.  “If they continue this way, they will get good jobs and have a better future.”  Indeed, she is right.  Her eldest daughter is working in a beauty salon.  Her second born has become a priest.  The remaining two are still in school.

But life in the Quarter has changed and new challenges have arisen.  Aida would very much like to return to the North where she can work the land as she once did.  “There is no war in the North now,” she says smiling.  “It is now safe to return home.”

Aida would like to start a business selling second hand clothes and shoes. She will purchase her inventory from the wholesale markets in Kampala and then travel to the North to sell them. In this way, she hopes to create a business which she can continue, once she is able to resettle in the North.

Please consider making a one time donation of $100 so that Aida would have the the seed money to start her business.

Betty never had the opportunity to attend school.  Her brothers did, but she didn't. She is adamant that all of her children, including her daughters, gain a full education.  To ensure this is possible, Betty has become quite the entrepreneur.

Betty is the youngest of eight.  Her father died when she was an infant, so receiving an education was out of the question.  Originally from Gulu, she met her husband in 1983 and “chose” him because “he’s one in a million.”  During the height of the war, they relocated to the Acholi Quarter to raise their family of seven children.  As the children have grown, her husband returned to Gulu to work as a farmer, while Betty has stayed in the Acholi Quarter rolling paper beads into beautiful jewelry as an additional income source for the family.

Her first business foray began when her husband would send her produce he grows in the North for her to resell in Kampala.  With her modest profits, she invested in a business selling second hand clothes.  Between her industriousness and her husband’s hard work, they now own a small commercial property in Gulu which they rent to someone to manage as a bar and restaurant.

Betty applied to Project Have Hope for a loan to buy a pool table, which she placed in the bar that they rent out in Gulu, where customers have to pay to play.  

Betty's industriousness and determined spirit makes it possible for her to secure a better future for her daughters.