Jennifer lives with her husband and their five children in a temporary structure in the Namatala slum. They have lived there for five years since being forced to leave their village in the mountains, due to a terrible landslide that killed many people in the villages in Bududa in eastern Uganda.
Jennifer’s family particularly depends upon agriculture for their survival and they always try and grow some crops on a small piece of land that they rent. They grow crops like maize, beans and tomatoes, mainly used for home consumption.
Jennifer had previously been trained in tailoring and so has also been making some few clothes for sale in Namatala. She would rent the use of a sewing machine and the money that she made from selling the clothes helped to pay the rent. She had been doing this for three years but had not really been progressing with this work.
After going through our business training course, she felt that she could continue with the tailoring but now do things in a more business-like manner. After submitting a business plan, we gave her a grant of about £25, which enabled her to purchase her own second-hand sewing machine.
So Jennifer was able to launch her new business on her own sewing machine, knowing that all the money that she would earn from making and selling clothes would now come solely to her and the family.
We visit her at home each week to chat through her business and her work and everything is going on extremely well. She fully grasped the business training and this has really empowered her and given her hope for the future.
Jennifer dreams of the family being able to have their own home again and so she is extremely committed to saving some of her income every week. Now, Jennifer and her family moved to the next stage of success in her CoH-funded business – she’s bought a cow. It will produce milk for the whole family and enough to sell to boost her IGA income.
She said: “I am very grateful to the donors who help sustain the lives of the children of the slums of Namatala through the mums of Child of Hope school.”