Nabalayo empowers Banda women through mushroom growing

Until October 31, New Vision will devote space to highlighting the plight of slum dwellers as well as profiling those offering selfless service to improve conditions in these areas. Today, ANDREW MASINDE brings you the story of perseverance and hope from Banda Zone I, in Kampala

When one strolls through Banda Zone I, they are welcomed by all kinds of sights and smell. Halfnaked children dressed in tattered clothes play happily, jumping over open drainages and sewers that separate the numerous mud-andwattle structures in area. Banda is a slum that lies eight kilometres east of Kampala city.

For many who ply the Kampala- Jinja highway, what lies behind most of the roadside buildings at Banda trading centre is unimaginable.

Like other slums, Banda is characterised by filth, congested, unplanned structures and poor sanitation. The residents are also an epitome of poverty.

In the 1950s, Banda was a wetland. But today, the papyrus that covered the swamp has been replaced by tiny low-walled structures with rusty iron or polythene sheets. But under these structures, numerous businesses go on, ranging from prostitution, brewing of enguli (local potent gin) and malwa to eating places, chapati making, charcoal selling and small retail shops. Blaring music welcomes you to the many drinking joints, where patrons start drinking as early as 8:00am.

The smell of marijuana hangs in the air. The crime rate is high. The area LC1 chairman, John Alia, says in Banda, everyone looks busy with their businesses as they eke a living.

“This zone houses many low-class people of all ethnic groupings, totalling to about 600.”

“This diversity has been problematic in a way because people have different behaviours and lifestyles, resulting in insecurity. This has often made people think that whoever lives here is a thief, a sex worker or a drug abuser,” Alia explains

The 600 Banda Zone I residents are part of the estimated two million urban dwellers in Uganda, who live in slums. Uganda’s urban population is 3.2 million, of which between 49% and 64% live in slums, according to the 2000 Uganda Population and Housing Census report. Only 14% of the slum dwellers in Uganda have access to safe drinking water, meaning that piped water is a dream in Banda too.

Alia appeals to the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to provide garbage skips in the area and open up the water drainage channels whose current state is a health hazard.

KCCA plans
Peter Kauju, the KCCA spokesperson, says a lot has been put in place to improve conditions in slums, but slum dwellers are the worst enemies of the areas’ development.

“They oppose all meaningful interventions, claiming the authority wants to take away their land,” he says.

“KCCA is ready to support all those who are ready to work with us. However, we are planning to start up new projects to help improve the lives of the poor people in the slums since they are also part of Kampala city and contribute greatly to our development. They should not think we have ignored them,” Kauju explains.

Change agent
While KCCA has big plans to improve sanitation in the area, there is one woman in Banda who is mobilizing the women to improve their household income.

After losing her husband in 2001, Juliet Nabalayo found herself in a difficult situation trying to provide for her four children.

Sitting on the doorway of her one-room house, she keenly watches over her mushrooms in the next open room.

Nabalayo started growing mushrooms in 2001 following the death of her husband. Today, she earns a gross income of sh120, 000 per week from the business and has trained about 30 women in mushroom growing.

“People who saw me starting this business thought I had run mad because they could see me collect cotton husks, wash and boil them, then wash them again before packing them in polythene bags,” Nabalayo recalls.

“Seven years down the road, everyone now sees the value in mushrooms. Many people have approached me, requesting that I help them start a similar project. I do it with a lot of pride because I see myself as a pioneer of this enterprise in the area,” she says with a smile.

The project has enabled Nabalayo to look after her family and send her children to school; one of them is now in Senior Four and another in Senior Two. She also runs small stall in the roadside market, selling tomatoes, onions and bananas to supplement the mushrooms business.

How she started
Nabalayo recalls that one day in 2001, while sitting at her stall in the market, a woman came selling fresh mushrooms, yet it was a dry season. When she inquired about the source of the mushrooms, the woman told her that she had harvested them from her farm.

This surprised Nabalayo. Curious, she requested the woman to allow her visit the farm to which she agreed.

At the farm, the lady was courteous and even taught her the simple techniques of mushroom growing.

On return, Nabalayo says she started saving. With sh100, 000, she bought two bags of cotton seeds at sh20, 000 each and the rest of the other inputs necessary to start the business. The rest, as they say, is history.

She harvests two basins of mushrooms three times a week from the two sacks that work as her garden. She sells each basin of fresh mushrooms at sh20, 000. She discloses that some of the women she has trained have bigger projects than hers.

Alia says Nabalayo has been exemplary, adding that many of the beneficiaries have even returned to their villages to start similar projects there.

Alia advises the Government to start up development programmes, targeting slum dwellers because they are neglected in most of the programmes.

How Nabalayo ended up in the Banda slum
Nabalayo says she came to Kampala in 1998 with her husband in search of jobs, which they were assured were plenty. But alas! Getting a job was not as easy as they were made to believe.

“When my husband died, I did not know what to do because he left me with four children. I had to persist despite the difficult conditions.”