\u201cIntellectual poverty is the biggest challenge in communities: it affects ones thinking capacity.\u201d Ritah Biira, a young self-motivated lady makes it clear what poverty and hopelessness causes in communities today. \u201cIn our society, even a little girl feels that she is worthless. That way, women never get self-confident. They sometimes feel like they can never decide for themselves and hence need a man to grace their decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As social workers, Ritah and her colleague Rogers concentrate on talking to women from about 30 villages in the Southwest of Uganda, and if possible recruit them for skilling projects in weaving or reed plaiting (in order to make baskets and other hand crafts). \u201cThis helps women to earn some extra money hence improving self-esteem and reduce over dependency on their spouses. This also makes them feel more valuable in the family in the eyes of their spouses. This perhaps reduces domestic violence. Regardless of the household poverty, women are responsible for supporting their families and ensuring that their children achieve better standards of living. They however have to do much more to earn the husband’s respect yet even after working so hard to get that extra income, their husbands often use it to go to the local bars to catch up with fellow men.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, the Anasi Farmers team continue to provide knowledge and skills on financial literacy and management and street businesses because a little extra money is urgently needed in the families to support their standards of living. In the 30 villages where Anasi Farmers operates, 45% of the children are malnourished. In 20 percent of the households there is serious violence against women yet the neighbours to these households often remain silent and look away increasing vulnerability and poor productivity of most women and in almost households\/families the burden of poverty lies mainly with the women since they are mostly less empowered. Ritah would only dare to call 10 percent of the marriages ‘happy’. When they intend to operate in any community, they often work together with local leaders, who help them identify community gaps before any implementation of any activities. Rogers emphasizes talking to men from different families and Ritah focuses on the women and children. The aim is usually to keep the families together, in better relationships and with better understanding of one another. \u201cWhen a woman gets divorced, she often has to leave. Yet most times she has nowhere to go. That\u2019s how the system works here\u201d Ritah narrates. Anasi Farmers also frequently trains both spouses to work together to have early maturing and highly nutritious vegetables from their gardens to ensure food security and also earn income from the sale of the surplus foods. \u201cThese are such small changes that create bigger impact especially with regard to promoting sustainable solutions in communities. Taking it a step further, supporting young mothers whose spouses are young fathers or have been ignored by their husbands is still too deep-rooted. Since it takes time to change mindset, we keep sharing skills and knowledge to ensure better future generation.\u201d Ritah herself is a role model, and she hopes to be able to encourage others through her own choices. \u201cMy parents are proud of me for doing this work. I can inspire other girls and women from the wider community that it is possible to be an empowered woman.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Step by step out of poverty \u201cIntellectual poverty is the biggest challenge in communities: it affects ones thinking capacity.\u201d Ritah Biira, a young self-motivated lady makes it clear what poverty and hopelessness causes in communities today. \u201cIn our society, even a little girl feels that she is worthless. That way, women never get self-confident. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-bringersofhope","post_format-post-format-aside"],"yoast_head":"\n