President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Museveni, yesterday hosted the Teso Widows Development Initiative at their country home in Irenga, Ntungamo District, and expressed their support for the initiative.
The Teso Widows Development Initiative is an organisation dedicated to uplifting 36,000 widows from the Teso Region by helping them secure better livelihoods and access education and skills. President Museveni serves as the Patron of the initiative.
The members expressed their gratitude to the President for his good governance and ongoing support. “You have changed our name from the mothers of problems to mothers of blessings,” they said.
In a memorandum signed by the initiative’s Director, Ms. Akurut Beatrice Omese, and presented by the secretary, Ms. Pauline Akello, the initiative requested support for establishing a technical institute that would transform and benefit their community. “Many of our children cannot afford education, and we believe the technical institute will equip all the disadvantaged with essential skills,” they stated.
In response, President Museveni welcomed the proposal, saying, “This is a very good effort.”
He subsequently committed Shs 600 million to establish a technical institute that would empower the community with the skills and knowledge needed to pursue careers. This funding would also cover books, laboratory instruments, salaries, and the general running of the school for the first two years.
To foster the initiative’s growth, the President advised members to develop a money-making policy, such as establishing a SACCO (Savings and Credit Cooperative) to provide soft loans. He pledged to contribute Shs 100 million to the SACCO.
Additionally, President Museveni promised to provide a pickup truck for the initiative and a bus for the institute to facilitate transportation.
The Teso Widows Development Initiative further expressed their appreciation to the First Lady for her contributions to improving the lives of marginalised groups within the initiative, as well as for her collaboration in providing entrepreneurship training.
Maama Janet, for her part, stated that it is her desire to see women’s organisations come together to save and establish a bank in the future that will ensure self-reliance rather than dependence. She mentioned this while giving testimony about a group of Bangladeshi women who were semi-literate with very limited resources but went on to establish one of the biggest banks in the world.
She further urged the widows to develop a saving culture rather than relying on a habit of borrowing to spend. “The problem we have is that we don’t know how to save, and we often borrow to spend,” said the First Lady.
To emphasise the discipline of saving, Maama Janet advised the widows to ensure that they save a portion of their earnings each week or month. As their savings grow over time, they can then invest the money into larger projects.
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