By Prof.
Waswa Balunywa and Diana Nandagire Ntamu
A local social enterprise in Iganga district was
founded to help young people and women to get into employment. The Foundation
based in Iganga was established by young people who had benefited from career
guidance from a family in Iganga. The Foundation which was established in 2007
is intended to expose young people to various opportunities for self-employment
and where possible to paid employment. It organizes training sessions including
practical ones like soap making, candle making among others. The Foundation
also focuses on women. At a training that lasted over 4 ½ hours, women were
advised to dialogue with their husbands to enable them understand the need for
women to work.
Women were
initially taken through the socialization process informing them how the
differences between men and women emerge and how women had become the
disadvantaged group.
The fundamental
differences between men and women arise from biological differences. Men in the
traditional society had taken advantage of this difference to create roles
between men and women. These roles had kept women in the kitchen. Women were
seen as people who are responsible for conceiving and bearing children. The
consequence of this socialization has been to deny women certain rights that
are ordinarily enjoyed by men. These include the right to education, right to
property, right to space among others. For this reason women have failed to
advance economically and socially. In developing countries, affirmative action
and legislation have enabled change to take place in this process. Women now
enjoy relatively more rights than before. In many developing countries
including Uganda, women still perceive themselves as subservient to men and
this has been perpetuated by the men themselves.
The Foundation
invites women for training in empowerment. The Foundation sensitizes women
about these facts and alerts women about the need for them to be gainfully
employed while seeking acceptance of their husbands. The Foundation is pursuing
a social objective of empowering women to improve their social and economic
status. The training conducted included identification of the challenges that
women face. Indeed women confessed that they were seen as objects in homes who
should provide food even if no money was given to them. Husbands found it
appropriate to stay out late and return to demand for food from their wives.
Women accused men of having multiple relationships while they as women were not
expected to do so. From women who worked, husbands expected them to meet the
home budget without assistance from the men. The women were urged to find ways
of discussing these matters with their husbands with a view to sensitizing them
about the need for women to work while at the same time contribute meaningfully
to the family budget. The Foundation invites facilitators who act as volunteers
to cause a discussion on how best this can be achieved. Besides, this
sensitization, women are also trained in activities of wealth creation; how to
start a business, how to attract customers and how to improve businesses. Several
women gave testimonies and some stated
that their lives had changed as a result of this training. They had started
businesses, others said they now understood the need to discuss with their husbands how to improve
their lives and those of their families through work. Some had already discussed
with their husbands and the husbands had allowed them to work. The women urged
the trainers to convince their husbands to come for training if they were to be
more successful in this social economic transformation. Some women reported
negative results saying that their husbands had not allowed them to work
despite the discussion they had had. (The
name of the Foundation has not been disclosed for purposes of confidentiality).
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