Accomplishments from April 2019 Site Visit: Kigezi Women Developing Skills

The Kigezi Women Initiative (KWI) is committed to elevating the dignity of women by improving literacy rates and providing access to skill-based trainings to women in rural Uganda. Providing women with technical skills allows them to overcome economic restraints. Therefore, by learning weaving, sewing, and handcrafting techniques women can engage in income generating activities, which have the potential to lift them and their children out of poverty.

I visited the women in the three villages—Bwisa-Kakore, Nangara, and Kigarama—in April of 2019 and am excited to share with you some updates about what the women have been working on. They are developing skills and excited about the possibility of producing items for sale. We want to continue building on this momentum and have made some key purchases to build capacity of skill building classes.

KWI contracted and hired a teacher to offer sewing classes to the women

  • Purchased two (2) sewing machines to provide for the women’s groups in Kakore and Nangara.

  • Acquired a weaving machine to allow women practicing without presence of teacher (before training was only possible with teacher since we were using the teacher’s machine for free)

  • Distributed 30 pound of material for weaving and knitting (wool and thread)

  • Checked on micro gardens’ performances. Around 85% of the families have a micro garden. 60% of those have good harvest (especially carrots)

  • Reinforced hand washing concepts and necessity of building tippy taps. Angello demonstrated how to build one in all three villages.

  • Workshop on first aid treatment for wound. Louis demonstrated how to disinfect and correctly bandage an injured person.

  • Refilled 1,000 packets of ORS in all three villages.

I had various conversations with the team on the ground and we discussed:

  • The need to involve children in future activities.

  • Possible ways to increase sweaters production.

  • Possible ways to ease transportation between Kakore and Nangara for the women involved in skill trainings.

  • Began planning for the building of a community center as we desire an increase in capacity.

 
Gian Luca Gamberini