More Photos from the MBS meetings

Joan and a widower member of the group. Note the walking sticks they have in common.

Children inside the Church where the Kikagati meeting was held (the coolest place around).

Widows clapping to the traditional dancing that was performed before we left the gathering. (The dancing itself is much like the imitation of a crane dancing, and is very hard to photograph. It consists of much leaping in the air while arms are outstretched on either side and the head is rotated to a soft hissing sound. Quite something to see.)

Mutual Benefit Societies

I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. I've been loaned the use of a high-speed internet, on which I can post more than one picture at a time. Which means that I can tell you about our meetings with the Mutual Benefit Societies in both Rubingo and Kikagati. These are the groups into which the widows and grandmothers have organized themselves, and it is from these groups that the members of the Bitengye Designers were chosen. They garden together, raise goats together, and share their meagre resources amongst themselves. In Rubingo we met with the leaders of the eight smaller groups (they have a


total of 190 members in all eight groups), and they gave us a little history on all the activities they have been engaged in together, reported on how much money they have saved in order to renew the lease on the garden they have rented, about told us their concerns regarding such things as school fees and access to treatment for those who are HIV positive. In Kikagati over 200 women came out to meet us with singing and dancing, and then gave reports on all their activities. These are brave and courageous women, who are willing to do almost anything to give their family a hand up in the world.

Stella and Anna

Meet Stella. She is 49 years old and comes from Kikigati. She birthed 11 children of who 7 are still alive, and has 1 grandchild - 5 others have died. She has been a widow since 2000. Stella is Coordinator of the three widows groups in Kikigati, involved with them in the gardens, in meetings and with other activities. She tells me that the widows meet monthly, and each one brings 1,000 shillings to the meeting (about 65 cents). The names of those present are put into a bag, and the person whose name is drawn from the bag, can buy whatever they want - a lantern, plates, a dress. I met Stella in 2007, and had her old sewing machine repaired for her and gave her a new one (the old one was in such bad repair that I didn't really believe she could sew with it). Since then, she has taught 8 others to sew on a treadle, but they have only repaired old clothing, having no new cloth to sew. Stella lives in a house with a leaking roof, and has to move the sewing machines around during the rains so that they don't get wet. We have asked Perez to look into the cost of either new roofing, or if the house is in bad repair, new housing. Stella is one determined lady, and has already shown that she has the capacity to teach others. We want to support this fine lady in her efforts.
Anna is 38 and from Rubingo, widowed in 1998 and raising her three children on her own, plus a niece who is an orphan. Her oldest child, Saphan, has completed P-7, but there are no funds for him to continue on to Secondary School. Yesterday we told Anna that we would find the funds for Saphan to continue, and he will join Barbra at Bugamba Secondary School, where he had already been accepted. First he must purchase a mattress, sheets, a basin, towel, file folders, an identity card, and other miscellaneous items. We will help Anna do that in town before she returns to her village at the end of the week. There is also a uniform to be purchased. She was extremely happy when we gave her the news, as were Knight and Kamida, both of whom have sons who are to be sponsored by a very generous Canadian who saw their story in this blog. Isaac will learn mechanics, specializing in motorcycles, and Swabu will learn building skills.

I Did It!

Meet Rechael, proudly showing us her completed placemat. She has made slow but steady progress all week, and was delighted to be able to move on to working with African fabrics today. Rechael is 33 years old, and comes from Kikigati, in the south of the country on the border with Tanzania. She has 4 children, aged 13, 9, 7 and 2. She has been a widow since 2001 and first tested HIV positive in 2002. She is both a peer educator for people with HIV and Chairperson of one of the widows' groups in her area. Her only source of income at the moment is from growing crops, eating what she needs and selling the rest. She wants to see her children progress onto secondary school, but has no funds at the moment.






And this is Lydia, a photo taken on Wednesday, when she graduated from sewing straight lines on paper to working with the practice fabric. Lydia is also from Kikigati, Chairperson of another widows' group, and also a member of the Mothers' Union, where she teaches women how to care for their families and about sanitation. She is 51, and has been a widow since 1995. She birthed 9 children, of whom 7 are still alive. Four are still in school. Since her husband died, she has been head of the family, and has earned enough from working in the gardens (where she grows sorghum) to support them all, plus two grandchildren. Her main concern at the moment is how to come up with the extra funds for her eldest son to continue in the second year of his program in vocational school, where he is learning building skills. Thankfully there were sufficient funds in the Kitambaa scholarship fund to help him in the short term, and on Monday he will be back in school.