Mbambu Lavina - Director of Joy Women Group

interviewed by Tallulah Lloyd

Question: Where were you born?

My Name is Mbambu Lavina a humanist, born in Kihara cell,Kihara ward in Nyamwamba Division  Kasese district in Uganda  in 1990.

Q: Where did you go to school?

I completed my Primary School at Kamaiba Primary School in 2005,My Secondary School at Kasese Secondary School in2009 and a certificate in electrical installation at Kyamuhunga college in 2011

Q: What was your family like? 

Our family was of 9 people, 4 brothers, 3 sisters, Dady and Mamy .We used to do subsistence farming especially growing cassava, bananas and sweet potatoes.

Our family had no reliable source of income  ,our income used to come from working in other people’s farms especially in Mubuku Irrigation Scheme .In fact ours was a poor family and it is a reason to why I didn’t  manage to go further in education.

Q: What is your village like?

Our village is actually urban and slum occupied with mostly youth and young women. There is a lot idleness and unemployment and poverty; diseases as HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases and Malaria fever are rampant.

There is also a problem of fuel for cooking food. Charcoal which is the main fuel used for cooking   is most expensive.

The village is served with reliable electricity power and water but again these services are expensive to meet/ buy.

Q: What is your family like?

Am a single mum with 2 children and all are boys. And my jobs are

• Doing electricity and solar installation works

• Doing farming of maize, beans, ground nuts and others.

• Doing guidance and counseling of youths and children.

Q: How did you become the director of the women initiative?

It happened that I stayed with young women in Kasese Municipality and then we organized to form a group in early 2017, we then organized savings and credit scheme to help raise capital to help support group members’ individual businesses.

After forming the group the members elected me to lead their group. The fellow members based on the fact that I had respect for every member, I involved all group members in decision making, I knew how to read and write and I knew how to manage the savings and credit scheme and I was  empowered to represent them in different activities of the group.

Q: How are the current projects going?

Tomatoes and onion project: The tomatoes and onions projects has given experience to Joy women and from this project we have so far generated Ugx 534,000. The knowledge of vegetable farming has given hope to escape poverty among most group members. This is because the members learnt farming tomatoes and onions practically right from purchasing seeds, preparing seed beds and transplanting seedlings to entire farm. Women are very proud of this project.

 The Mobile Money Project The Mobile money project has so far generated Ugx 270,000 and it is being reinvested in the same project. We want this fund to grow big.

Tailoring project. This project was temporarily affected by lockdown because of  COVID 19 between March and May and so we have  just reopened.

Benches and tables business.The benches and tables business is affected by lockdown up to now since march 2020.

Q: How was Joy Women Group previously funded, before HGC/BBI?

The first project that we had before Brighter Brains funded us (now Humanist Global Charity) was Savings and credit scheme and was funded by the group members. They mobilised savings to raise capital to help all the members have captal to set up or boost their own businesses.

Q: What are the needs of the group?

The needs of the group are as follows:

• Building a permanent office for Joy Women Group and include rooms for some projects. 

• We need Books on humanism and others about development.

• Setting up a secretarial centre/ business that will offer typing, photocopying, printing and scanning services.

• Boosting our savings and credit scheme with a big fund to help members get involved in meaningful businesses.

• Setting up a brick making project for income generation.

• Setting up a briquette making project for making bio fuel/ charcoal.

Thanks

Mbambu Lavina, Chairperson, Joy Women Group, P.O.Box 21, Kasese Uganda