Empowered women are transforming their communities

The notion that empowered women transform societies is not just a tale it is the reality of some of the women who we have interfaced with.

She felt like her story was over when her husband Henry Kasoro died in 2006 following a short illness, Midiath Kasoro is as mother of 5 children; 4 boys and 1 girl. Her husband was the breadwinner. This unfortunate incidence distressed, depressed and left her bitter.

It was during that time that FOWODE started the vulnerable Women’s Empowerment Project in 2012 with support from Mcknight Foundation;

Midiath’s life never remained the same. She and other members of Nyakaina FOWODE group and with 9 other women’s groups were trained in life skills and enterprise development.

“I owe a huge debt of gratitude to FOWODE for training us in stress management, self-esteem and confidence building, assertiveness, effective communication, lobbying and advocacy, understanding patriarchy, gender based violence, Personal Presentation, handling Criticism, Networking and Building and Maintaining Effective Teams. We were also trained in how to start and manage small-scale income generating projects as well as leadership and gender budget monitoring.

I had no idea that this was a start of a great journey, we later began monitoring government programmes especially schools and health centers. We held in community dialogues, interface meetings and radio talk shows and civic education meetings. The civic education meetings opened my eyes up to the making of Uganda, my role as a citizen in nation building, electoral democracy among others

She testifies that this inspiration couldn’t have left her same.

“These engagements reenergized me and reminded me of my important role in shaping the future of our country and more than before, I now appreciate the importance of educating the girl child”

She has recommitted herself to ensure that her daughter Angella gets quality education.

“I have also been monitoring our neighboring health centers especially Buyanja Health center 111 to ensure that the health center provides goods services especially to the women.” She said

“My new-found assertiveness has earned me a place on the management committee of Buyanja health center 3, a platform that I have been using to demand for timely and consistent service delivery at the health center. Whenever I visit the health center, the health workers immediately begin serving patients because they know that I will report them to the District Health Office.”

I now teach other community members about their role in monitoring service delivery as well as how they can manage their finances through good budgeting, saving and investment

My business has also expanded thanks to the skills I acquired from FOWODE’s enterprise development trainings. Am now able to raise school fees for my children in time.”

We are commited to continue empowering women and shaping the future.