A Mentor Single Mother’s Voice (Mrs. Nabweteme Sarah, a resident of Nabweru village in Nansana, Wakiso district lost her husband 23 years ago. She is a mother of five children and the husband died when the eldest son was 12 years and the last born was 2 years. She has done many different small scale businesses and currently, she has a wholesale business selling second hand Chinese and European clothes in Kalerwe market in Kampala. With the capital of 3,000円 she secured from a money lender, she has managed to grow and sustain her business and today, she runs on a 95,000円 monthly capital with a far reaching 20 years’ experience in handling the business. Mrs. Nabweteme is a successful story and from her business, she managed to take all her five children to school and they are all professionals in different fields, she also managed to build a house for her family and also owns rentals where she earns extra income. From her business and investments, Mrs. Nabweteme says that she earns 50,000円 a month and she now belong to the middle class in Uganda, which salary is earned by a person who is a supervisor in a big company with a master’s degree and far reaching experience. One thing that has made her very specially and highly respected in the field of business, is her effort to support young single mothers and anyone irrespective of sex and age who are interested in the same business. Today, Mrs. Nabweteme list 17 people including 4 men who have been guided by her to sell clothes and provides to them continuous advice on how to improve their businesses).
Mrs. Nabweteme is a mentor single mother in The Matovu Foundation and her role is to guide and provide daily advise to young single mothers and below are her own words; “I have walked this journey with my five children and can hardly find words to explain how difficult it has been for my family. I managed to get a loan of 100,000 shillings and I could pay back 25,000 every month. It was a very hard time for me because the money lender was almost taking every single money I was making but had nothing to do. Being a single mother, I very much understand what these young single mothers are going through. It is even more tuff for them these days because the life they are living in is so expensive yet they have to look after their families. I am committed to place my hand on any woman who come to me for help and the only thing I can give them is to guide, advise, and make sure that they can live a different life. I do not want them to go through what I had to experience because it is unbearable. I would like to let you know that we do have lots of these single mothers and the number keeps on increasing. They are living a very desperate and isolated lifestyle and they really need a hand to make them believe that there is another life for them. I have managed to help some people but to be honest, these people having nothing in life, they are hopeless, and what confuses me is that nobody seem to see this as a problem. From my experience, I strongly believe that any woman no matter their beauty, their background, their level of education, can live a positive lifestyle and be able to feed their families. It even does not require a lot of money to help these people, what is needed is a “Caring Heart” and any amount of money can start and sustain a business as long as they are trained and guided well. I am therefore committed to support this project so that it can grow bigger to support a big number of women.
I kindly appeal to everyone who can read my message to support and motivate these young people who have come up to address our problem in the community. Any contribution means a lot and it solves so many problems that are associated with families in our community. I pray that the Almighty God bless you all and reward you abundantly for your kind support” Nabweteme Sarah