HOUSE OF LOVE AND HOPE
Areas of work
This project empowers vulnerable women, helping them gain their own income and be independant to cater for their children’s needs.
In the area that House of Love and Hope work in, an area which lies on the marathon route, 7 out of 10 women who leave school are semi-literate. These women often become housewives and unemployed mothers who are at high risk of domestic violence due to prevailing poverty in their homes.
Without their own income, these women are left vulnerable and fully reliant on their partners who are often Boda-Boda (motorbike taxi) drivers with insufficient money to cater for their basic needs. Extensive research across the developing world has shown that households that have women who are self-sustainable and non-reliant on the man of the house are found to focus far more on educating their children as a number one priority – that is why there is a phrase in Uganda “empower a woman, empower a family”.
House of Love and Hope is an organisation that combats a wide variety of issues felt by women and girls, they work to empower the women to be independent and earn money that will cater for their own and their family’s basic needs. In previous years, Uganda Marathon runners have supported 25 women with launching an events business. Since then, they have been building clientele and have reached a point where the business has been able to pay all the women a liveable wage, and with the average family size amongst the group being 6, this wage is essential to creating family security.
As this businness has grown, the women have been getting requests from other local women inspired by their project who want to join their membership.
With your support, we want to enable this to happen and bring another 40 women into the business.
2020 Goals for House of Love and Hope
- 65 women by the end of 2021 to be earning a liveable wage through the events business
- Triple the earnings of the group by allowing them to take on larger clietns by the end of 2020
How your fundraising will help us achieve the goals
With your support, we will be expanding the size of their operation to add tents and decorative materials to the St Bruno Events and Decoration business. The group have already identified the women they want to join the business, with all of them coming from within their direct local community of Ssaza, which sadly has a very high reputation for alcoholic rates among men.
Your Legacy Day During the Uganda Marathon Week
St Joseph is the school the single mother’s children attend and, in previous years, runners have fundraised for clean water to be brought to the school. The Mothers will be setting up their tents and treating the day like it’s an organised event, which they’ll be catering for. This will give you a taste of the business your legacy will help grow.
Then, together, you’ll build a school playground, which will help benefit the St Joseph school and all the kids on the school feeding program.
Legacy day activities are subject to change at any time, this is not a final plan.
Local Hero Profile
Mrs Monica Nkonwa the project manager of HOLAH, lives in Ssaza with her husband and they have four children who are now working away from home.
Monica currently lives with four young grandchildren. Monica used to work with a charity organisation that supported the local community children in education and she saw the challenges people face. When the charity moved to another region, many children that the charity supported had to drop out of school, after moving to Ssaza 15 years ago she realized the same various challenges disadvantaged children face during their time in school in the community she had moved to, she approached HOLAH to come up with a sustainable solution towards this challenge.
She was then able to acquire money to setup a poultry programme given her vast experience in poultry, and now its generating income every term for 65 pupils to get lunch at school.