From: cherbert

Attached is the information on the Ugandan Women's projects I visited. It was a very small visit, so only represents a small posting! These projects are small scale industrial and agricultural projects, designed to help women produce income. Of course, it has a tremendous effect on their dignity. These complement small scale industry projects for men, and in some cases men and women. They can only be seen as one form of project, there are of course many others related to health, childrearing, AIDS, etc.

Jo Anne is a very beautiful, courageous, strong and fearless Ugandan woman who travels throughout the country assisting in women's development as a project worker. She is in her late 40s and so far as I can tell has been travelling for at least 10 years now. She has tireless energy, is supported by her strong Christian beliefs and combines great sense with optimism.

I spent a day with this lady, and it was a great learning process for me. Her networking is incredible, and she is very well known and respected.

On the day I spent with her, we went to a refugee village of stonebreakers. The work is done mainly by the women. First they heat the rock, so that it can be more easily broken. Just a couple of days before we arrived, one man had lost his legs when the rock they were heating exploded.

The sight that greeted our eyes was of a group of women surrounded by clouds of thick white dust sieving the rock. Near them were several mounds of aggregate which showed that they were not being able to sell their production.

This is one of the difficulties in Uganda, (and many other places), that when an idea seems to work, everyone takes it up, and then the price they receive for their work is very tiny, or there is overproduction.

Obviously transportation is another problem. Petrol is a dollar a litre in Uganda, so along with costs of maintaining a vehicle, it is not financially viable to merely try to provide transport as this will not solve the village's difficulties.

Jo Anne explained who she was and asked to consult with the villagers. Men, women and children quickly gathered together. Jo Anne's approach is to ask what the problems and difficulties are, and to ask what other ideas the villagers have for improving their situation. I was very impressed by the level of consultation (although obviously I couldn't understand what was said). Men and women contributed easily and openly. Some ideas were discussed, and Jo Anne asked them to continue to discuss what could be done, and arranged a date when she would visit them again so that they could draw up plans for training in a variety of skills that could diversify their sources of income.

What is considered women's work varies geographically in Uganda. So, for instance, women in the north will ride bicycles, although it is a very rare sight to see a southern Ugandan woman in charge of her own bicycle.

So, one of the small scale industries, smelting waste aluminium and moulding it, is done by women as well as men in the north of the country. This uses very basic technology. A hole in the ground is filled with charcoal and a pot. A small duct into the hole is the entry point for blowing in air via a bicycle driven pump. The aluminium is then melted - which happens very quickly with the excellent charcoal that the villagers all make for cooking, etc. and poured into earth moulds in soil filled wooden boxes.

The bandsaw flywheels that I saw emerge were very serviceable. One Ugandan boy made a fortune when he made thousands of school bells by this method.

Other projects I visited were:

A craftswoman who had incredible abilities making crafts from pictures to sculptures for tourists. The development team had assisted her with information and training to improve her techniques, and her skills were then being shared with others.

All local pots in Uganda are hand thrown or sculpted, and so a neighbouring small scale industrial project was using their developing skills in metal and woodwork to make a kick wheel for her to use and teach others to use. This shows how the projects interact. One of the trips we made was to find good quality clay and beeswax, locally produced at a reasonable price to assist in this project.

I visted women who were learning to use treadle sewing machines. This is very favoured, but has probably reached its saturation point. Hence the need for diversifying.

Another project, run cooperatively by several women buys in second hand clothes, which are plentifully marketed by the bale in Uganda, and tie dye them for resale. They had some wonderful designs, and this is fashionably popular in the country at present. Here, help was needed with the processes, and the problem they needed assistance with was information on natural dyes, so that they could cut the costs, and overcome difficulties of dye supply.

There are also projects on weaving and tapestry, crafts that are not strongly indigenous in Uganda.

The other projects are to do with organic farming, and here whole families are involved in learning methods for growing, marketing and diversifying their crops to maximise income at all times of the year. Uganda is a very fertile country.

Diversity, consultation, cooperation, information and empowerment are the basic principles upon which this form of development is based. The drive comes from the individuals themselves. All of the project managers are Ugandan, and my brother's role is to provide the information and technologies that they need.

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