Behold a saviour born for Kisenyi slum dwellers

By Frederick W. Womakuyu

FOR a long time, Kisenyi was associated with poverty, filth and prostitution. And, for 37-year-old Anita Awori, this was the kind of life she has led for about half of her life. Awori, who has been a resident of Kisenyi for 14 years, lost her husband to AIDS five years ago. She remained with seven children and two relatives to look after. Fortunately for her, she tested HIV-negative.

To be able to support her family, Awori resorted to prostitution because she had no education, no skills to engage in any kind of gainful employment.
“I was raped and assaulted several times and many customers did not pay for my services,” says Awori.

To make matters worse, Awori lost two of her children to malaria just because she could not raise money for their treatment.

On a sad note, the people her late husband owed some money before he died confiscated the only two goats she had been left with and the family remained with nothing.

But for Awori, this string of problems was just a passage to prosperity, thanks to Kampala Integrated Environmental Foundation for Credit and Community Assistance (KIEFCCA). KIEFCCA is a non-governmental organisation that gives loans to Kisenyi residents, improves sanitation, gives children education and improves housing facilities for the slum dwellers.

The project has not only helped Awori to start a coffee-vending business and acquire skills, but has also helped her to construct a two-roomed house and provide for her family.

Although the coffee business does not leave her enough time with her children, Awori does not regret. “When I remember how I used to suffer; how my children used to sleep hungry and even failed to go to school because of lack of school fees, I cannot stop working hard.

“I now own five boda bodas (motor cycle taxis) in town and a modest house. I can pay school fees for my children and other relatives. Before KIEFCCA came to this area, I was a pauper, but now things have changed.”

Awori is one of the fortunate people in slum areas in Kawempe, Kampala Central and Makindye East who have benefited from the project. The project is funded by the Swiss Technical Cooperation for International Development, Tear Fund and International Development Aid, and implemented by Assistance Mission for Africa and local councils.

Olivia Oboth, the KIEFCCA community health specialist in Kisenyi, says the project works closely with community leaders and local people and uses the money donated by the Assistance Mission for Africa and the Swiss government to fund household activities of slum dwellers and those infected and affected by AIDS. They help the people to access loans from micro-finance institutions to improve the sanitary conditions, acquire better accommodation and bring social services closer to the people.

Andrew Lwaze, a field officer with KIEFCCA, says: “The project targets families with no access to clean and safe water, poor accommodation and poor sanitary conditions. We give people initial capital to start income-generating activities.”

The project which was launched in early 1997, involved local people, opinion leaders, civil society and other NGOs to select the beneficiaries. Lwaze says the project targets people in slum areas where the standards of living are very low.

Oboth adds that each family is given sh500,000 as start-up capital. After starting, they can use the businesses as security to acquire loans from banks and other micro-finance institutions.
The members take on a number of projects such as charcoal selling, cloth vending, saloon business and selling of fresh fish and vegetables.

“Most of the people we have given this money have used it well and remitted back the initial capital to KIEFCCA so that other people can benefit,” says Lwaze.
Lwaze says slum dwellers in Kisenyi, Namuwonge and Karelwe have benefited.

He adds that KIEFCCA projections indicate that by the year 2016, half of the slum areas in Kampala would have been covered comprehensively and then the project will roll out to other areas in the country.

Peter Mugerwa, the Kisenyi II LC1 chairman, says the project has solved the water problem and improved the incomes of the people in the area. The sewerage problem has also been solved and the sanitary conditions are improving.
Hillary Obbo, a resident of Kisenyi, says: “With a mere income of sh5,000 daily, I never dreamt I could own a house. But with the help of KIEFCCA, I was able to trade in foodstuffs and improve my income. I am now a proud owner of a two-room house.”

Oboth adds that the project has also cleared the drainage system in the area that was severely blocked by polythene bags and other domestic refuse and had become a health hazard.

Peter Ongom, 20, also residing in the area, says they were using polythene bags as toilets. “We used to defecate in the polythene bags and dump the waste in the neighborhood because we had no toilets, but KIEFCCA has constructed for us toilets.”

In order to sustain the project, Oboth says they have embarked on education to create awareness on how to run businesses.

Kisenyi Self Help Support Project (KSHSP), a project that teaches and encourages the residents to keep poultry and rear pigs, has now started in Kisenyi II, thanks to KIEFCCA. Martin Wadare, the head of the project, says about 300 people so far have benefited from this project.

Jane Nakago, a poultry farmer says: “I was a very poor woman before KIEFCCA and KSHSP started operating here, but now I own 500 chickens from which I earn sh100,000 per month. I pay fees for my children and feed them.”

Wadare says the project has tackled the problem of poverty and ignorance that used to ravage the area. He, however, says due to lack of funding, the project may not be able to carry out all its activities and appeals to other NGOs to come out and help.