Spare a thought this Mothering Sunday for young mums like Miriam, who is lifting her family out of terrible poverty by hand-making bricks in a Ugandan slum.
Single mum Miriam is one of 40 mothers who were trained and recruited into Child of Hope’s business start-up scheme last year. Each one of them received a grant to launch a small business to boost up their family income, along with lots of training and support to help them succeed.
These 40 mums have now established all sorts of small-scale businesses – but, unusually, Miriam opted for a business that is more often handled by men in Uganda. She started a brick-making and sales business.
During the winter school holidays they made 13,000 bricks and dried them over a fire to sell in the in dry season when the demand is high. This month she was able to sell all her bricks at a price of 200 Ugandan shillings per brick (approx 4p a brick). However she lost about 1,000 bricks due to breakage.
Hard-working Mariam says that when the brick business is off-season, she supplements her income by selling potatoes, local fruits such as jack fruit, and boiled maize.
She also hopes to join Child of Hope’s agricultural group to do some farming, which will result in her having produce to sell at greater profit.
If you are interested in helping slum mums set up in a business, either as a one-off or monthly donation, please click here for more information. The change to their lives can be huge!
