USAID programme assists disabled women in Uganda to achieve success

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is running a project in Kamuli district in Uganda. The district is blanketed by small farms and dotted with small homes. Musogah Dinah Christine teaches a group of physically disabled women to sew.

Musogah Dinah Christine is associated with the Agriculture for Women with Disabilities, a USAID-funded activity implemented in cooperation with Send a Cow Uganda. The USAID activity provides skills-training to small groups of women in Kamuli district in Uganda, said Konso Suzan, who is part of a USAID programme, through which the team is building up marketable skills for women who are physically disabled.

One component of the training is sewing. Apart from sewing, the women are also being trained to learn how to improve their farms to augment food security, a necessity as extreme weather turns out increasingly common in the area.

"People think that because we are physically disabled, we are mentally disabled, too. But we will prove them wrong. One day they will be the ones to teach the able-bodied," Musogah Dinah Christine said, who like many Ugandans places her surname before her given name.

Group members have formed a cooperative and begun a clothing line, designing and manufacturing practical but attractive outfits — including casual wear, dresses, school uniforms, and toddler clothes — for sale at markets in and around their village. They have expanded their line to include accessories such as handbags and ogling markets to other places. A saving association has also been created by women.

Dinah Christine expressed her happiness saying that the original 7 members of the group have stayed around to teach a new unit of students, including schoolgirls who come after school and on weekends to learn a trade. The sentiment is echoed by women across the district who have formed more than 100 such cooperatives.

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