Making a Living as a female Barber.

Kimbowa at work . She she enjoys her job depsite what people think about a woman being a barber

WASHING and shaving men’s hair are some of the services she offers. She also does a ‘mean’ (great) neck and head massage that will feel you totally relaxed.

But more than that, her charming smile will steal your heart and get you going back over and over again to Queencie Salon and beauty spa in Entebbe town. She is said to be one of the best barbers in Entebbe.

Catherine Kimbowa leaves everyone aghast at how a woman can be a barber. Clients will more than willingly part with the sh4,000 for a super wash and sh5,000 for a shave and massage.
Kimbowa, 23, started doing men’s hair by the age of 19.

Orphaned at the age of six, she was brought up by her grandfather who, unfortunately, could not afford her school fees. So, she found ways to earn a living.

She says she dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but lack of money shattered that dream. So, she turned to hair, and something she has come to love.

Kimbowa has made it her first love, giving it 101%. She says she is not in a relationship because of the nature of her job. She doubts many men would be comfortable with her being ‘intimate’ with so many men.

“I love to see people looking smart and neat. I always wished that I could have been the one to make them look like that,” Kimbowa says about the love for her job.

She attributes her skill to boss Ibrah, who trusted and let her use the shaving machines.

“I trembled the first time I grabbed the shaving machine, more so it’s vibration scared the hell out of me. My hand quivered, I was wondering whether I held the machine right,” recalls Kimbowa.

She says being a female barber comes with a lot of misconceptions. She has been a victim of verbal sexual harassment from impolite men, although it is rare.

Nonetheless, she is glad she has managed to look after her siblings and grandfather using the money she earns from being a barber.

Her relatives and friends discouraged her from becoming a barber because they perceived it as a job for a “spoilt girl”.

“My grandfather was worried that my clients would bother me and even abuse me sexually, which is not true,” says Kimbowa. “Anyhow, working with the guys is so interesting and I have always liked it because guys are much more appreciative than women.

Even when I started working at Queencie Salon in the women’s parlour, I was not comfortable until I joined the barber side,” says Kimbowa.

Although she realised shaving hair was a man thing, she went ahead and did it. She believes women should embrace job diversification, instead of being idle.
She says has discovered that there are things men desire in the salon.

“I discovered men love tenderness. That is why they come to me. When I shave and massage a man’s head gently, he appreciates it, and this boosts my self-esteem. They also tip me. This adds to my salary of sh80,000,” says Kimbowa.

Jessie, 30, a client at Queencie Salon, says being worked on by Kimbowa is like heaven because she has a very polite persona and she is patient with her clients, a characteristic lacking in most male barbers.

“When I need a shave, I dash to Entebbe town from Kitubulu to feel Catherine’s magic hands,” he says.

As if that is not enough, her female workmates give her the thumbs-up for her braveness and expertise to work on male clients - something they dread for fear of being sexually harassed by them.

Karamoja bears brunt of poverty

MOVE FOILED: Some of the Karimojong who were stopped at the checkpost in Iriri in March on their way to Kampala await to be transported back to their villages.

For decades, progress has eluded the Karamoja sub-region, home to a cluster of different tribal and ethnic groups, leaving it desperately poor. With conditions so hard to bear, residents have opted for different survival measures,

A group of dusty villagers wearing the colourful but faded traditional wraps of the proud Karamojong stand barefoot in the mud listening to the new law of the land. “Any Ugandan adult has the right to move wherever they like in the country,” a probation officer announced to the crowd of bony adults and pot-bellied toddlers, in the guttural language of the Bokora tribe. “But you need a letter from your local leader if you want to transport your children out of the region. If you transport someone else’s child you will be arrested.”

This is Naitabwei village, a pitiful speck in the vast, barren plains of Moroto District, Karamoja region, North Eastern Uganda. After trying to leave, nine children between the ages of one and 13, and three mothers, have just been returned here by police escort, apprehended at a remote police station in Iriri, on the Karamoja- Katakwi border. “My family are hungry but digging the fields here is useless, so I thought I would move away to earn some money or food,” said Nanga Martina, 38, who was travelling with her two young children three-year-old Lowal and one-year-old Lokwi to look for casual work in the cassava fields in Siroti, a neighbouring district.

No progress
In several development and economic indicators, Uganda has been forging ahead. But for decades, progress has eluded this part of the country, home to a cluster of different tribal and ethnic groups, leaving it desperately poor. UNOCHA, in its Consolidated Appeal for Uganda 2010, said, “Karamoja remains saddled with the humanitarian consequences of chronic under-development,” with limited livelihood options and negligible basic services. At least 900,000 people in the region are facing severe food insecurity due to consecutive rain failure and poor harvests over four years, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network announced last month.

Insecurity is also a push factor for these traditional herdsmen, with a culture of cattle rustling: Rampant armed violence has been aggravated with a combination of a limited justice system, competition amongst tribes for natural resources, and prevalence of illegal weapons. The Ugandan army has achieved a measure of stability with a far reaching disarmament programme, but progress has been uneven and there are still frequent reports of raids and killings.
Recently deserted homesteads of mud huts dot the landscape, their characteristic thorny perimeter fences little comfort against a live AK47. But since January this year, over 200 Karamojong, mainly from the Bokora in Moroto, have been stopped and returned to this unforgiving environment.

Officials say it is a humanitarian response to stem the flow of destitute Karamojong children onto the harsh streets of the capital Kampala and other cities to beg. “On the streets the young are not cared for. They are exploited for their ability to earn rather than attending school, girls are exploited sexually, they risk accidents from passing vehicles, their living quarters are unsafe,” said Ms Florence Kirabira, the acting head of the Child and Family Protection Unit, Uganda Police Force. The implication is that they are better off at home.

There’s no clear data on the number of out-migrants from Karamoja, but a study by German NGO ASB in 2009 found that numbers have increased in recent years. Their findings support the thesis that migrant Karamojong face poor, unsafe and unsanitary living conditions. The Feinstein International Centre at Tufts University in 2007 found an increasing trend of young people out-migrating alone to work for people with whom their families have no pre-established relations, which may suggest heightened precariousness. And there have been some incidences of direct exploitation. “Migration is being commercialised and children deployed by certain individuals who take advantage of desperate communities," said Scp Grace Turyagumanawe, the co-ordinator of Re-establishing Law and Order in Karamoja.

There have been no prosecutions for child trafficking, but last month three women and one man were charged with ‘kidnapping from lawful guardianship’ because of their suspected link to several unaccompanied teenage girls and a nine-year-old boy who were travelling in the recently blocked vehicle. However, most commentators agree that the majority of children leave with their parents or relatives, or at least with their parent’s consent.

Maria Nichiyo, 13, from Nakwakwa village, Iriri Sub-county, provides an example of the dangers that can await young migrants. Last year her mother urged her to travel to Kampala with a woman from a neighbouring village because of the lack of food and insecurity. She intended to earn some money begging, capitalising on her lame leg for pity, and return to her village.

The Shs20,000 ($5) maximum a day she could earn was far above anything achievable in Karamoja, but the woman took her earnings. “I was left with nothing. I would have to hang around the dustbins looking for scraps of food. Sometimes I wouldn’t eat at all. At least here you get some greens,” she said. These are types of stories the probation officer relates to the ragged crowd back in Naitabwei village. “Instead a child should be in school, in familiar surroundings” insisted the probation worker.
The message was received intently amid murmurs of revelation and understanding. “It is our mistake,” said one tall, lean woman, green and red beads around her neck, her dusty hair in knots. “We are sorry.” But the mood quickly turned fractious when the officials began to leave. “You have talked a lot but have you brought food?” heckled on woman. Another picked some weeds from the red/ black earth and signaled that it was her only source of nourishment. Growing angrier, she pulled her withered breast from her torn top – a stark demonstration that she could not feed her baby.

As such, there is concern in several quarters with the human rights implications of preventing poor and hungry people seeking a brighter alternative within their own country. No other ethnic group is subject to travel restrictions in Uganda.

One support worker confided that she had returned two teenagers back to a village where some elderly people had just died from starvation. “It is a fine line between people’s rights to movement and the protection of the young,” said Agnes Karani, UNICEF’s child protection specialist for Moroto.

Tufts University senior researcher Elizabeth Stites said while Karamojong out-migrants do face difficulties at their destination, it is important to remember that "seasonal migration for the semi-nomadic Karamojong has long been an integral coping mechanism appropriate to the environment". But Mr Moses Subbi, the senior district probation and social welfare officer, insists the initiative is in response to repeated community requests for assistance, which were crystallised in a district-wide consultative workshop with village elders in December.

The road block is not permanent, but mostly activated by local tip-offs that several children are leaving. “It is intelligence-led,” said Mr Subbi, “we work with the cooperation of local communities.”
Certainly, touring the scattered villages, the response is generally in favour of a mechanism by which out-migration by children, even with their guardians, is controlled. But it is always qualified by the need to couple such actions with support back in the place of origin.

Checkpoint
“The police checkpoint is a good idea because Kampala is dangerous,” said Paul Ngorok, the local chairman of Locitel village, Locopoi Sub-county, Moroto, which has seen a lot of out-migration in recent years. “But the government and NGOs should give us support so those returned don’t just leave again,” he adds, citing food, seeds, a horse, and agricultural implements as useful inputs.

Aid agencies are in agreement.

“Is Kampala the problem, or is it the solution? The problem is right here in Karamoja,” said Federico Soranzo, Karamoja co-ordinator for Co-operation and Development, one of the longest established NGOs in the region, which has been working on water and food-related interventions for 30 years, and provides a well-established child protection unit, funded by UNICEF, and in turn DfID.

For the last three years C&D has been supporting the local government respond to a national programme of returning children and some adults from the streets of Kampala, back to their villages in Karamoja, by providing development assistance for the returnees.

Women like Agnes Abura, have been provided with aid in the form of a mud hut in a protected compound, some start-up seeds and funds for textbooks for her child. But the road block comes with no funding and is the initiative of an already scantly resourced District police force – NGOs such as C&D, Save the Children and the local Catholic Mission provide basic food for those apprehended and transport for their return to their villages.

Greater attention
In the last few years, since the threat of the tyrannical Lord’s Resistance Army has receded in northern Uganda, Karamoja has received greater attention from the government, international aid agencies and NGOs, looking to help develop the area. Long standing actors such as the World Food Programme, which distributes food aid to hundreds of thousands of hungry Karamojong every year, are developing more complex but sustainable interventions in response to chronic food insecurity and economic inactivity. “So long as there is this imbalance, people will be drawn out of the area,” said Stanlake Samkange, head of WFP Uganda.

There is a long way to go and it is the second time that Nanga Martina has tried to leave her village.
The probation officer tells her that if she is caught again, she will be detained, even though she is travelling with her own children so Martina says she will now stay put in her village. Perhaps she will be able to cultivate some food, given that some rains have come this year, providing the normally scorched land with a sprinkling of green. But without sustained development the attraction of the road will still be compelling.

Resolute woman makes a decent living as a taxi tout

Naluhuka, a capable lady conductor who goes about her duties like any other tout, came to Kampala determined to make a difference in the lives of her siblings after they lost both parents at a tender age.

When life rears its ugly head at you, in order to survive, you either swim or sink. Naluhuka chose to swim and she is a happy taxi conductor

Its 6.30a.m. and my phone let’s off a remainder alert; I have to call a one Esther it reminds me. Hurriedly I place a call to her, wanting to re-confirm whether she still remembers our interview. “Yes I do remember but you will have to call me later, in an hour because right now I’m too busy. I can’t really talk. I’m already working.’’

And with that, her phone goes dead. Now who at 6.30a.m. on a Friday can already be that busy? A Friday that has kicked off with a steady drizzle threatening to turn into a full blown shower.

For Naluhuka however, 6.30a.m. is already peak time. The kind of job she has entails; a very early rise, a late finish and endless doses of machoism. Naluhuka is a female taxi conductor who plies the Naalya to the old taxi park route seven times a day, six days a week.

So the interview takes place in her “office”. A moving taxi. After catching up with her at around 9a.m. at the Ntinda stage, I quickly realise that this is going to be different. “Like any other passenger you will have to pay for your seat interview or not,’’ she tells me with a stern command to her voice.

You see, this is a woman in the jungle that is the Old Taxi Park. “This job quickly taught me to be tough. If you are a sissy then this is not a profession for you whether you are a man or woman,” she states as she opens the taxi door to let out a passenger at Quality Super Market at Ntinda, then loudly calls out for more, ‘’Aba genda e Kampala lukumi lukumi (Shs1,000 for those going to Kampala).’’

I was the eighth born,’’ she says. Life was good and all the children were attending school. However tragedy knocked on their door with such cruelty taking both their parents. ‘’First it was my father that passed away in 1998. A year later our mother followed him,’’ she calmly says. When pressed about the cause of their death, a silence ensues. It’s only broken when the taxi creaks to a stop and she’s back to shouting for passengers, head popping out of the window.
Taking that as a sign I have trespassed into forbidden territory, I back off the subject.

“So what did you and your family do next I ask?”
“Our relatives couldn’t pay for our fees, so we all dropped out of school and resorted to digging. We dug mainly food for the household like beans and maize but at times we sold some just to get some money for up-keep.’’

This kind of cycle took its toll mentally on the young Naluhuka. “I couldn’t see myself staying like that for the rest of my life. I was determined to better myself and the family,” she says. When life rears its ugly head at you, in order to survive, you either swim or sink. Naluhuka chose to swim. In 2003, four years after her mother had passed on, she decided to make the trip to Kampala to try her luck.

“I did this for me and my siblings. I had to take my chances or else we were destined to suffer and that thought tormented me,’’ she says. It’s the only time during our interview that I see her in a pensive mood. That decision, going by her pensiveness, to this day seems to have meant a lot to her.

However its one thing coming to Kampala with determination that moves mountains, and another succeeding. Naluhuka learnt the hard way. “I had a relative in Namasuba who offered to take me on as a house girl. Having come from digging, I found the chores of being a house help easy. But it was the money that I found disturbing,’’ she says as she flings open the taxi door at the Kamwokya stage with such intensity.

“Abagedelawo Kampala…Abagedelawo Kampala,’’ she screams competing with touts and other taxi conductors for passengers. It’s at this point that I sneak a quick chat with her co-worker, the taxi driver. His name is Frank Kanaba.
“What is it like having a female conductor?” I ask?

“It’s mainly perception that is a big problem. Some touts who help us call passengers, on seeing a female conductor, decline to help saying they cannot waste their breath helping a woman. This is mainly done at the Ntinda stage.’’

But that doesn’t deter the tag team. “If they don’t help us, we do it ourselves. And that is the one thing I like about her; she gets in there like the rest of the taxi conductors and calls the passengers with no help from the touts. This behaviour has earned her respect in the park as fellow taxi conductors and even the drivers see no difference between this woman and them.’’ Now how about that for a job assessment by your boss?

The taxi rolls on to Kampala and we are back to the interview. “Yes the money was painfully little. It was Shs20,000 per month. With that I had to take care of myself and my sibling in the village whom I sent sugar, soap and some little pocket money. I worked there for a year and left to look for greener pastures,’’ she says. “In 2004 I decided to become a trader.

Using the money I had saved from my first job, I rented myself a room in Ntinda and decided to venture into the tomato business. I used to get the tomatoes cheaply at Kalerewe and sell them handsomely at Kamwokya.’’ She did the tomato stint for two years averaging weekly profits of Shs40,000, a far cry from the Shs20,000 she earned as a house girl. “Yes it was and I even increased my help for my siblings in the village. I visited them at least thrice a year."

But after a few years, it seemed it was not enough and she once again ventured into something new. This time it was dealing in clothing. “In 2007, I decided to deal in clothes. It was mainly children’s clothes. I got the clothes from Kikubo cheaply and sold them again at Kamwokya.’’ This time her take home pay on a good day was Shs50,000. But she wanted more.

This next thing was dealing in shoes. When I ask why she kept on changing jobs, she says, “I have many people I take care of and that means that I’m always on the lookout for anything better,” she reasons. The shoe business was started in 2008. “This was actually good business. I was earning between Shs7,000 to Shs15,000 a day,” she smiles.

I ask why she didn’t think of settling down and perhaps meeting someone.
“That topic is forbidden,” she says as she opens the taxi doors around KPC for more customers.

“Kampala men taught me lessons that at the moment I’m off men completely,’’ she says with a finality that is unsettling. I prod and she gets angry threatening to throw me out of the taxi.

I apologise and we resume the interview. “After the shoe business which I did for two years, I became a conductor. Why I went into this business is that unlike my previous ventures, this one didn’t need me to have any starting capital. Besides, all my previous businesses had started getting a lot of competitors and the profit margin was decreasing by the day.’’

But why a taxi conductor? “Do you think I’m the first woman to do this? Life is about what you make it whether you are seated in a fancy office like yours or in an “office” like mine.

At the end of the day its money and I go where the money is promising. Who knows, tomorrow you could see me with another job!” she said as we came to our final stop in the park. Indeed, life is what you make it and what a whirlwind of a life Esther is moulding for herself.

Boda bodas: Riding day and night to repay loans

TIRED: Boda boda operators in Mbarara take a nap after the day’s work.
Mbarara

Acquiring a loan can be sweet because of the problem-solving promise that comes with it. But repaying that loan can become a nightmare if all things do not go well. The challenge of repaying a loan is what boda boda riders in the western district of Mbarara are facing.

Many have now resorted to working day and night in order to pay back the boda boda loan acquired from financial institutions. Mr Peter Amanya has been in the boda boda business for the last five years but feels he can not progress. A well-to-do man gave him a motorcycle to use. Mr Amanya’s task was to give his boss Shs5,000 daily from Monday to Saturday.

Although that looked a promising offer, getting the Shs5,000 plus catering for his family demands, made it hard for Mr Amanya to progress. “Raising that money was hard because even your family expects you to provide for them,” he told Saturday Monitor recently.

When the motorcycle owner withdrew his property, Mr Amanya decided to acquire a loan from the bank to buy a motorcycle. But even after buying his own motorcycle, saving enough money to repay the bank loan has not been easy due to the competitive nature of the business.

The growing number of boda boda riders, which currently stands at 3,000 in Mbarara town alone, has made the scramble for the about 200,000 town residents difficult by the day. The chairman of boda-boda riders at Ntare Stage, Mr Benard Namanya says life is hard for those who acquired motorcycles on bank loans.

Equity Bank is the biggest financial institution that gives boda boda loans and according to its management, it is hectic to recover the money. The bank has given out more than 850 motor cycles in Mbarara.

Investigation indicates that many riders do not fully own the motorcycles.
“I have to keep on working to raise money to pay the loan and to support my family,” Mr Abdu Mugisha, a boda boder rider in Kizungu Zone says. He says the financial institution that gave him the loan requires him to pay Shs8,600 daily for the next 15 months. Getting such money is next to impossible unless one works for extra hours. Working in the night also has its risks and many boda boda operators have fallen prey to attacks by robbers who take away their motorcycles and money.

Impounding motorcycles
Mr Kadri Byaruhanga, the Equity Bank’s Business Growth and Development Manager (Mbarara branch) said the loans are for 15-18 months and the beneficiary has to pay an agreed amount every month. He said on defaulting, the beneficiary is given 7 days to reconcile his accounts, but this comes with impounding the motorcycle. Mr Byaruhanga adds that when the beneficiary violates the agreement, the motorcycle is auctioned at an equivalent to the loan balance.

A motorcycle that goes for Shs2.1 million can cost up to Shs3.2 million if acquired on loan and paid within 18 months. “On this money we make about Shs300,000 as profit given the expenses we undertake in the project,” Mr Byaruhanga says. He says the bank faces the problem of thefts by riders though the motorcycles are comprehensively insured. “Cases of disappearance by the beneficiaries are costly to trace.” He says 92 per cent recovery has been made since they started the loan scheme in 2008.

The OC traffic Mbarara, Mr Peter Kagina, said they have been sensitising boda-bodas about their security and retiring from work early. He said if left unaddressed, working at night can become a source of accidents because the boda boda operators will be fatigued all the time.

Overloading
Police records indicate that only one accident involving a boda boda rider was reported last month in the district. Though the traffic officer is reluctant to discuss overloading by the riders, it is common knowledge that they carry more than one passenger including luggage.

Mr Michael Nuwagaba, who operates from Rwebikoona says, “We carry more than one passenger to make more money. There are a number of pressing issues around us like loans.” He said, work becomes even harder when fuel prices rise because many passengers don’t want any increment in charges.

Pressing family demands coupled with pressure to repay loans, are challenges that boda bodas have to contend with. Despite the challenges that boda boda operators go through, many keep flocking to financial institutions seeking for motorcycles on loan.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/-/688342/918158/-/fvs4wx/-/index.html

There is life after years in the hands of Kony

INNOCENT: Most children in the north were born in IDP camps.

What would the future hold for a child, abducted brutally at the age of six and led into the jungles to become a rebel? A straight answer to this question has been hard to come by;

This is the tragic and devastating tale of thousands of innocent children who got abducted during the over two decade war in northern Uganda and against their will were conscripted into the rebel ranks.

Mr Morish Guma, 21, was abducted in 1987 in the cold night. At his tender age of 6, Morish trekked through the bush to unknown destination. He watched other children die or cut with a machete and left to die. He was later to spend 15 years in captivity. At 21 now, he struggles to remember his childhood days, as he was virtually bred and shaped to be a rebel.

Brainwashed
These children faced hostility and death; they were defiled, raped and brainwashed. While thousands died, others escaped or got rescued and returned home. But it’s believed thousands are still stack in the bush in captivity. Most of them, though still alive, have had their lives permanently ruined, while others experience unprecedented levels of trauma.

In spite of all these, Mr Guma now a resident of Madi Opei parish, shares with Sunday Monitor how his life has been turned around for the better. “I escaped from Sudan in 2002 but lived at Madi Opei camp until 2008. I am now a total orphan as my father died while I was still in the bush and my mother died last year,” the former child soldier reveals. Over the last three years, a near complete normalcy has returned in the north and several recovery and resettlement efforts have taken of.

New life
But a new lease of life for Mr Guma has come through a joint effort by the Northern Uganda Transition Initiative (NUTI), under USAID programme and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). In 2008, NRC reached out to ex-child soldiers and other vulnerable children through the local council leaders where key life skills’ training was offered to the selected youth. “They (NRC) started training us how to live together and be united. We were trained to abandon the kind of life we lived in the bush,” he recalls. NRC implemented the training under their Youth Education Pact (YEP).

According to Mr Julius Tiboa, the NRC Head of Office for Kitgum, Pader and Lamwo, YEP was designed to cater for youth aged 14-24 who missed the opportunity to go to school due the over two decade civil war in northern Uganda.

The courses in YEP centres include: carpentry and joinery, brick laying and concrete practice, tailoring, catering and agriculture. “I chose BCP and received training for one year and that training has left me transformed,” adds Mr Guma. After the training, Mr Guma and his colleagues formed Tic Ching Ber Youth Group, literally translated would mean vocational skills is the best. “I am the chairman of this group and our hope is to reshape our future and be of great benefit to our communities,” he says.

The group’s members either trained in CJ or BCP where they hoped to find work and building contracts to begin earning a living. It was at this point when NRC linked the group with NUTI and they were given a contract to build a community hall.

Getting employment
“We started building the community hall in November 2009 and completed it in March this year,” he said. The president of Casals and Associates, an American private company implementing the NUTI programme, Ms Beatriz Casals, was last week in Agoro Sub-county in Lamuo to commission the community hall. The hall also has office space and a computer room.

According to Mr Guma, NUTI offered them over Shs14 million for their labour to build the community hall. “Each of our members has so far earned Shs700, 000 but about Shs4 million is yet to be paid to us by NUTI,” he added. The youth group is comprised of 36 members.

This programme is the first of its kind in northern Uganda and the most successful intervention in the post conflict era. “I have gone through immense transformation, I can read and I have abandoned the rebel life. I am also performing very well in my department. In the past few months I have managed to buy a cow,” adds Mr Guma.

Ms Casals commended the youth for their effort and determination to succeed and appealed for transparency among local leaders and government officials in their recovery efforts. “The last thing I want to tell you is transparency. It helps development and growth of our communities and the country,” she added.

NUTI chief of party in northern Uganda Amanda Willet reiterated that their work seeks to create community confidence in government work and aid the recovery projects. “The idea is to send a message that some of these children who committed terrible crimes want to come back home and contribute back into their community and be accepted,” Ms Willet observed. She argues that NUTI is piloting the initiative in the hope that government or someone else will pick up the idea and also implement it.

NUTI under USAID received about Shs29 billion in May, 2008 to implement projects up to April 2010. All NUTI projects have been field driven with participation of all local leaders and stakeholders. According to Ms Willet, NUTI had three specific objectives to pursue in northern Uganda.

Media focus
“We focused on media and information because the returning community needed accurate information. The second issue was to develop confidence in the local government and lastly to pursue truth and reconciliation activities like cleansing ceremonies descent burials for those who died at the peak of the work,” she said.
USAID programmes have also invested heavily in infrastructural developments but Ms Willet says the biggest challenge is the maintenance of their projects since NUTI is not a long term development partner.

Other recovery activities had been the promotion of household cleanliness where after several months of sensitisation a competition was launched in Mucwini sub-county to identify model homes. The best homes in each parish received bicycles, followed by radios and the third best got mattresses. Household were expected to have pit latrines, bath rooms, kitchen, sitting room, and bed room and rubbish pit among others.

The exercise is expected to help eradicate hygiene related illnesses like Hepatitis E which has been rampant in Kitgum District. In spite of a lot of suffering and trauma in the war battered north, the story of Mr Guma is one that gives hope and strength to millions of children affected by war in the north.

The head of NRC says upon completion, youth like Mr Guma are supported with startup kits to practice the knowledge they gained from the centres. “Linking them up to construct the community hall in Agoro and make school desks is one of the way to support the youth become self reliant,” Mr Tiboa said. NRC selected child headed houses, youth with disabilities, child mothers, single mothers and former child soldiers to benefit from the training.

Guma tells his story
I have no happy childhood experience to remember or talk about. Mine has been a sad story of pain, dejection and hopelessness. I still struggle to choke back tears every time I remember the day LRA rebels raided our village and herded us into the jungles to become rebels. It was 1987 but I cannot remember the particular day but all I remember is that it was a terrifying night.

I was later to spend 15 years in captivity, training to kill and loot for survival. Before my escape in 2002 from Sudan, I had climbed the rebel ranks to the level of ‘Lafwony’ (meaning teacher in literal translation). The army helped me trace my village in Madi Opei but everyone was still living in the camp. So I joined the camp life at Madi Opei from 2002 up to 2008. My hope for a better future or a new life from a rebel to a civilian was gone.

Rescue comes in
That is when the Norwegian Refugee Council in Kitgum came to our rescue. They used the local council leadership in the camp to identify former child soldiers, child mothers and child headed families for training in life skills. So I was identified among this group.

NRC started training us how to unite and work as a team, how we should love the community and be discipline to aid our reintegration. They asked us to abandon the kind of life we were used to in the bush and after several months, they started teaching us vocational skills. NRC had four training departments including building, tailoring, and carpentry and catering, and we were free to join any of them.

I joined building and received training for one year. After this as members of BCP and CJ we formed Tic Cing Ber Youth Group and we were so lucky that NRC connected us to NUTI which awarded us a contract to build a community hall at Madi Opei in November 2009.

We finished building the hall in March this year and our members are doing so well. They elected me their chairman. Each of our 36 members have so far got Shs700,000 from the project but we are still expecting Shs4 million balance yet to be paid by NUTI.

Literacy
This experience has completely transformed my life. I can now read, I have been accepted within my community and I recently bought a cow for myself. This is my story, thought I still struggle with a lot of issues like the death of my father who died when I was still in captivity and also my mother whom I returned and found alive but unfortunately, she fell sick last year and died, leaving me a total orphan.

I wanted both of them to be around and witness my life transformation. But we are grateful to NRC and NUTI for giving us hope and a chance to live a gain productive life.

Groundnut production increases as demand grows

Farmers put groundnut pods on tarpaulin to dry under the sun after harvest.

Available statistics about groundnuts in Uganda have shown an increase in production mainly caused by growing demand for the food crop. Figures from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics indicate that national production increased from 126,000 metric tonnes in 1999/2000, to 219,000 metric tonnes in 2005/6. Groundnut paste makes quick sauce to be eaten with cooked bananas, potatoes, yams, cassava, millet, rice, ugali and other foodstuffs. It takes relatively a short time to prepare groundnut sauce and it does not require a lot of fuel. This makes it one of the most handy sauces especially for people in towns who return from work rather tired and want to quickly prepare a meal before going to bed to rest.

Roasted groundnuts make good accompaniment to coffee and tea. Nearly everywhere in our urban centres particularly along the streets, there are people vending roasted groundnuts measured out in small quantities, like for Shs200, Shs300 and Shs500. Shopkeepers grind the groundnuts into powder or into a paste which they sell to customers in measured amounts. Many parents want to provide their boarding school going children with roasted groundnuts and the demand for them increases as school holidays come to an end.

Groundnuts are an important source of protein and a raw material for edible oil. They are also used in making confectionaries. Their leaves are valuable to the farmer as they provide fodder rich in proteins.

Western Uganda is known to produce the highest amount of groundnuts at an estimated 107,000 metric tonnes annually followed by Eastern Uganda at 59,000, Northern Uganda at 36,000 and Buganda region at just 17,000. Thanks to the informal cross border trade, Tanzania’s groundnuts have in the recent years started to infiltrate into Uganda, and caused the average farm gate price for shelled groundnuts in the country to remain at about Shs2,500 a kilo. Sometimes, especially when some parts of the country experience prolonged rain shortage a kilo of shelled groundnuts gets to as much Shs3,500 or even higher in some towns.

It is not a bad idea then for a farmer these days to invest in groundnut production as the demand for the crop is big. The crop requires plenty of rain at least during the first two months and a good amount of sunshine in the third month when the crop begins to mature and becomes ready for harvesting. Some people these days are taking to drip irrigation and planting the seeds in rows, which ensures successful production especially when they have access to farm manure or phosphate fertilisers.

The field should be clear of weeds and the best soil for groundnut-growing should be fertile and loose to facilitate harvesting. During seedbed preparation all large clods of soil should be broken down. The mature plant is uprooted manually by lifting and the soil should not be so hard as to prevent some of the pods from coming out of the soil during harvesting.

Planting should take place at the beginning of the rain season. The farmer digs a small hole about six centimetres deep in which to plant one or two seeds. The holes should be quite close to one another, hardly a foot between. Weeding must be done early before the crop begins flowering.

Groundnuts are self-pollinated and it is the fertilised ovary, or the peg, which bends and grows into the ground where it develops into a pod which contains the nuts. Delayed weeding disturbs the process of the pegs growing into the ground. Similarly a hard ground occasioned perhaps by poor rains will make it difficult for the pegs to penetrate into the ground and lead to a poor harvest.

A hard ground will also complicate harvesting as some of the pods will remain stuck in the ground when the farmer lifts the matured plant. Yet digging them out with the hand hoe means more labour and chances of damaging the pods with the farmer’s hoe are quite high. At maturity the plant’s leaves become yellowish and eventually dry up and drop to the ground.

Close spacing leads to a dense plant population, reduces weed growth and also creates conditions unfavourable to aphids which cause groundnut rosette, a common disease for the farmer to worry about. Other diseases that sometimes attack the crop include leaf spot, groundnut blight, and bacterial wilt. However agricultural extension service providers always have a word of advice about most of the common groundnut diseases. Other worries have to do with rodents for which traps or scarecrows can be placed in the fields.

Matovu’s money ‘grows’ on trees

Above, Matovu at his farm and right, some of the mangoes from his garden. With grafting, one tree can have two different types of mangoes. One branch can have one type and another a different type of mango

With grafting, each mango that weighs up to 3kg can fetch him between Shs2,000-Shs2,500,

Sometimes we have to utilise opportunities to exploit our talents and this is what Rashid Matovu has done. Using grafting, a horticultural practice of uniting parts of two plants so that they grow as one, Matovu has raised seedlings that have produced good variety at his farm in Jinja. He has become a permanent exhibitor at the Jinja show ground exhibition garden extension every year.

Tony red mangoes are some of the stand-out “wonder” crops at Matovu’s farm where a single mango can weigh up to three kilogrammes.
“In the local market, each mango can fetch me between Shs2,000 to Shs2,500 and the beauty of Tony red mangoes is that they are not seasonal. I am able to harvest from these trees all year round, so anytime I am sure of some income,” Matovu, who is in his late 20s says, as he walks me around the garden that also has apples, cabbages, tomatoes among other crops.

“So as I finish harvesting on one tree, another will be starting to bear fruit which keeps me in business. In fact, in the supermarket I can sell each mango up to Shs3,000 but obviously they (supermarket) make more money and thus profit from it,” he adds.
In an average supermarket, mangoes are priced depending on their weight, with standard prices for each kilogramme.
One of the contributing factors to good weather patterns that favour this year-round harvest at Nalufenya A village is the fact that the seedbeds and gardens are close to the lake. The soils are also loamy and fertile.

“One tree can have two different types of mangoes. One branch can have one type and another a different type of mango,” Matovu adds as he explains grafting as a method of tying together stems from two plants in order to get a better crop. His explanation is not far from the dictionary meaning.

From the different fruits, juice can be made into packaged fruit like splash. He has done grafting for avocado and apples and these crops have yielded good results. In his simple language, he explains that he will cross a male apple and use the tongue of the female during grafting in order to get a better apple fruit.

He however, says that not every plant can be grafted. “We do not graft pawpaws and jackfruit because they have a lot of sap.”
Matovu started doing grafting in 1999 after school. He offered Agriculture at Kyambogo University and was assigned to Jinja Diocese programme (Jideco), for his practicals.

To date, he still works with Jideco who have trained him further. He tells how he was retained by Jideco. “When I went for practical lessons, I made sure I gave it my best. When I was given a chance to prove myself, I used composite and liquid manure which worked well for the crops so my supervisors were impressed. I had been given a garden that had been sub-divided in smaller plots and I had plants like carrots, tomatoes, rice, egg plants, cabbages,” Matovu shares.

Today, he also organises Jideco’s exhibitions every year. He says one of the ministers in the kingdom (Busoga) has won a contract to supply seedlings of different fruits for export to London. And these will be got from Matovu’s farm. He says his biggest achievement is getting experience on this farm. His skill at grafting has taken him places on short term contracts to work on farms as far as Mbarara and across the border in Kenya to do grafting and professional garden maintenance work.

Matovu has something to show from his sweat. “I have also been able to build a home in Buzika (a parish in Jinja). I have five cows and have married. So far, I have six children,” he tells about his achievements worth a decade of hard work. He also has sheep which go for Shs40,000 each and goats. He dreams of owning one of the biggest and well-maintained farms one day.