ARUWE has had to cancel vital trainings held in rural communities because their minibus has broken down.
Why we care: Many women in rural Uganda struggle to grow enough food and lack training on strategies to improve their quality of life.
How we’re solving this: ARUWE’s trainings help provide women agricultural training to earn their livelihoods and support themselves and their families.
“Before the project, my family used to have only one meal. I was so amazed by the bountiful harvest of maize I got with the support of ARUWE through trainings and acquisition of better seed varieties. I am now able to feed my family with two meals a day and vegetables to balance our diet. I can’t say enough to express my gratitude…”
–Veronica, ARUWE beneficiary
Florence Nakazibwe is 56 years old and lives in Mulagi, 100 miles away from the nearest city. For 54 years, Florence lived on less than $1 a day, like thirty-eight percent of her fellow citizens. Two years ago, Action for Rural Women’s Empowerment (ARUWE) arrived in her village and set up a learning center where she acquired a loan, bought maize and bean seeds, and learned about sustainable agricultural practices that enabled her to always have enough food to feed her family, while also earning a profit from her crops. With ARUWE’s support, Florence saved $400 and is now constructing a new house for herself and her five grandchildren!
ARUWE travels those 100 miles to hard-to-reach villages like Florence’s to work with women and girls who spend their entire lives working the land to provide food for their families and obtain income by selling what remains. The majority of the women ARUWE is working with have limited formal education, and they are dependent on this work to support their families. ARUWE has worked side-by-side with these women to:
- Form five women farmers’ groups
- Train over 200 women on improved agricultural practices
- Integrate gender-based violence awareness into high school education, training 162 girls over five sessions
- Increase access to clean water for 600 people
- Conduct hygiene and sanitation trainings at five schools and 200 households
ARUWE has proven that by providing women with the right resources, women themselves will end the cycle of poverty that engulfs them and become successful farmers, breadwinners in the family, and leaders in their communities.
ARUWE’s critical trainings have been possible because of one thing: a small minibus. ARUWE staff need reliable transportation to cover long distances and difficult roads to reach rural communities. ARUWE’s minibus has not only been the means to attaining critical training and income for the women ARUWE works with; it is their lifeline. ARUWE transported 88 women and children to hospitals saving their lives in emergencies. It now faces a huge crisis because its 1996 minibus has broken down and is irreparable. ARUWE has had to cancel vital trainings held in rural communities. In the meantime, ARUWE has hired a minibus and driver, costing this small organization three times as much as the cost of owning a vehicle.
Our staff cannot reach the beneficiaries that we seek to assist. We have to cancel critical trainings, and cannot provide assistance to sick women in accessing healthcare because we do not have reliable transportation. (ARUWE staff member)
With your help, ARUWE will:
- Provide more women farmers with knowledge and skills in sustainable agriculture practices
- Develop community model farms
- Increase the capacities of local agricultural trainers
- Increase farm yields and family incomes from agriculture
- Increase household food security, nutrition, and family income
- Assist women farmers to initiate new income generating activities