HOPE FOR MAAMAS UGANDA ACHIEVEMENT REPORT 2021
INTRODUCTION
Our Mission is; To Empower Women in Uganda through skills training and Education but especially priotizing a girl child.
This year has been totally different from all the other years but mostly similar with 2020, this was due to effects of the pandemic that affected the activities and their implementation. Initially we had a number of activities well planned just like any other year but only about 5% was achieved.
Below are the objectives as initially planned;
1) To train at least 30 women/ single Moms in Business and Financial literacy
2) To train at least 30 women/single Moms in other skills i.e. Tailoring, Art and crafts, cooking, Gardening, Bakery, I.G.As,
3) To train at least 50 girls in different skills e.g., the reusable menstrual pad making, candle wax, liquid soap etc.
4) To pay and keep at least 50 girls in school.
5) To give at least 30 women business grants as starting capital to self-sustainability and take care of their families!
6) To put up a ministry self-sustaining poultry farm project.
7) To carry out 12 field visits for monitoring and support to all families and schools.
8) To train at least 12 Adult literacy classes.
9) To host at least 12 religious fellowships, discipleship classes
10) To provide to at least 50 families with basics especially food, medical and beddings.
ACTIVITIES ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE YEAR
Below are the achievements of the year/activities which were implemented;
1. From the month of October to the month of December we had 50 girls together with a few boys from our single Mom’s families have been receiving skills training at the office. These have been trained in making Ketchup, round donuts, chapati, gardening, partial weaving and braiding hair, partial tailoring skills.
2. In the same month of October to December, 50 students have received lunch and breakfast each week at office.
3. In this same manner they have been counseled in groups, we have done individual counseling, we have had 3 career guidance sessions, we provided sexual reproductive lessons to 50 students.
4. We held one successful beneficiary meeting during the month of October, this acted as a follow up, monitoring and support at the same time. After one full year from since when the pandemic started, we had a big distance between us and the families that we serve due to the lockdowns that were brought by the pandemic. However, on this day of the 23rd we had our families talk and express the challenges through the pandemic, we had fellowship and prayed together, we shared lunch which showed love and unity with our families.
5. During the month of October, we provided food to 15 starving families, we provided medical assistance by paying for hospital bills and buying medicines to our family which got burnt up in the fire in the month of April, restored their business bought for them some clothes, bought for them beddings and paid rent for them in the new house and provided food.
6. In December we rescued a teenage Mom with her baby and her whole family who was starving, sick and hopeless. Sylvia is still in the process of restoration, skills training and rehabilitation with her baby Martha, we have embarked on the plan to look for the house to resettle her, we are planning to train her in business skills and financial literacy with others in the month of February 2022.
7. We hosted Airtel telecom Uganda, on the 8th December we hosted this very big Network on that date after being nominated as one of the charities in the region to impact the community. They were 12 charities nominated and we ranked number 8, this Network donated to us 2 office chairs, 1 Embroidery sewing machine, 1 brand new singer type of ordinary sewing machine, 1 big two trays electric oven. These have enlarged our territory especially in skills training in the community for it is going boost the project so much through 2022.
8. We hosted a Christmas party for the beneficiaries/families in December. This was a get together with all our Moms and their children, to feel happy after two years of distance due to the pandemic. We wanted to also celebrate together life and show our community that we are still together and we still love them despite it all.
9. We had our own girls Prisca and patience get their new sewing machine full package after they completed their tailoring skills, they trained from 2021 to 2022 for three months.
CHALLENGES
1. Many families have been displaced and separated with their children due to rent, standards of living went high. This was due to the political turmoil in the country, the pandemic and loss of their businesses we had Empowered them with.
2. Due to the pandemic and lockdowns, we have had 12 girls get unwanted pregnancies and some got married as they had lost hope completely thinking early marriage is the solution. Many are suffering as the men they got married to are big and polygamous which has its own challenges.
3. We had 50 students lose their sponsorship due to the pandemic as mostly their sponsors are struggling and cannot afford to pay for their education again. This was due to the effects of the pandemic to the whole world too. The term is about to reopen in January 2022 but we have not yet got the fees for all these girls and they are most likely to drop off schools.
4. Our rent sponsor had her house burnt in the last year’s summer of 2021, this was a big set back to the organization for we currently do not have enough resources to keep the office, and we have not yet replaced such a great heart to pay for the office rent again.
5. Lack of a van or a car to run our errands made everything even harder as some times during the lockdowns we were given chance to use private means to follow up on the families, take some basic needs but it mostly failed because the families are too distant to hire one. We had one friend donated food but we could not reach all the families starving as it was very expensive to hire, we ended up giving it to a few around. There are some families we completely lost contact with unless we drive there.
6. Due to the difficulty in transportation during the pandemic time, we lost two beneficiaries, a mother to our student called Amiri and a girl called Maishara one of our students. These got sick at the time only private and authorized cars were allowed to take patients to hospital, time went by as we tried our best and failed to give support until they lost their breath. We lost a hard-working single mother to our student, leaving her children with their very old grandmother, and a very bright student Maishara.
Mostly all the above challenges were due to lack of enough resources to give support, follow up or implement all the activities as they were supposed to be done. Given the opportunity we would try our best and make sure all is well. The organization is financially not in position for many things currently because we have been and still relying on friendship, individuals who many of them are struggling due to the effects of the pandemic. They lost their jobs and struggling to even put food on their table,
However, we have the following below are our future plans;
1. Given the opportunity we want to put up a poultry farm at the office space, this is one of the projects that can help us go self-sustaining to manage some activities and reduce on donor dependency. There is a proposed budget attached to this report for the poultry farming, given that the office space is very big and strategic, it is along the main road, and in town area, we are planning one over 1000 birds, for layers and broilers, these can easily be taken care of as we have access to water, power, a good road, market because of the town.
2. Still given the opportunity with the resources needed, we are planning to utilize the Electric oven which was donated to us, to train baking skills to the community but at the same time to bake for sale. We plan to put up an outlet outside of the office and we shall be using it for selling all the products we make like ceremony cakes, bread, donuts, cookies among others that are all possible with our oven.
3. We have almost all the types of sewing machines that can make great products for sale, we have 12 ordinary level sewing machines, 1 embroidery sewing machine and 1 baby locker. Given the opportunity with resources, we are planning to get African Kitenge fabric, make products for sale besides training the tailoring skills to the community.
All the above projects need capital to start up and given the opportunity, we shall be able to manage all the administrative work and costs, be able to pay some volunteers as we shall also provide jobs to our families, we shall be able to train different skills to both our families and the community around as we are looking at specializing in skills to support our mission of EMPOWERMENT.
We hope to also be able to train more women in business, financial literacy and give some grants each year to some, venture them into the start to take care of their families and needs. With all the above projects we hope to host other organizations, people in the community who search for knowledge and skills in all that we shall be doing, in this we shall act as a training center in all such skills in the community near and the whole region.
We believe there will be a lot of people gaining out of these projects given the opportunity to start on them and the organization shall also benefit from the income that comes from the products made for sale. We are still asking for the hand of support as we move to this other stage of self-sustainability, even if we are on this track, please we need your advice and networks here and there.
CONCLUSION We would like to thank all of you for the support even you have been able to give to us throughout the years of this difficult time. We could not do nothing without all your kind support, thank you for the love you shared with our families, the donation has managed to restore smiles and hope to our families. We pray for a blessing to each one of you and praying for more partnership even in the next year for the betterment of the organization. Happiest New year to all of you!
On behalf of the team
Monica Mukanza (Monic Lyn)
Executive Director/ Founder
