Below is the Chairperson’s Speech during the Lauch of the project.
His Royal Highness the Chief of Ntembe (Mr. Ayub Banamwuita),
Hon Women MP Jinja (Madam Loy Katali),
Hon District Woman Councilor- Jinja (Madam Rose Mukama),
Principal Probation Officer Jinja (Mr. Opio Ouma),
Chair Person LC 3 (Mr. Kiganira Hamis),
Sub County Chief (Mr. Charles Wansogi),
Community Development Officer –Mafubira Subcounty,
Chair Person LC2,
Chair Person LC1,
Board of WELL,
Staff of WELL,
Beneficiaries of WELL,
All Our Invited Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen
We are greatly humbled to have you here. We thank you for honouring our invitation and joining us to launch this project “skills training for women empowerment” (S4WE) 2018.
Dear Guest of Honour, WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND LIVELIHOOD LINKS (WELL) is a Community Based Organization (CBO), registered in Jinja with a Mission “To enable women & children attain empowerment through health, education, socio-economic and psychosocial support interventions”.
Our primary activities include:
- Enhancing livelihood opportunities for income and food security for women, young mother girls and children through income generating projects and this we are doing through skills trainings.
- Promoting access to financial services by instilling a savings culture among women and girls.
- Promoting girl child education through lobbying for increased access to education by the girls and where possible providing support.
- Creating environmental awareness and protection among women and girls
- Advocating/Lobbying for rights and appropriate policies for women, girls and children
- Providing information and support for HIV/AIDS infected women, young mothers and children.
OUR GOAL: “To champion the Socio-Economic empowerment and livelihood of women and children”.
Our Chief Guest, this is an enormous task that we cannot achieve alone on our own without support from partners and well-wishers. Therefore we want to take this opportunity to thank Private Sector Foundation that has funded this project to advance the skills of the women in making soap and body Jelly this year 2018.
We also thank the previous funder VGIF from America who funded the initial stage of the project in 2015. This is the second stage of improving the skills and the quality of the soap and Jelly. What will be produced after this stage therefore should be able to capture the market. We urge the local community to support WELL by buying the products, we are confident the quality will be competitive.
Dear Chief Guest, as earlier mentioned WELL has been training women and girls in many skills for empowerment that include Baking, Craft making, Hair dressing, Soap and Jelly making, Back yard gardening like mushroom and vegetable growing for their nutritional supplements, rearing chicken and animals especially fast multiplying animals like pigs. This has been our main focus in empowering the women because from our baseline survey carried out in 2016 we realised that all efforts to empower a woman without looking at income first will be counterproductive.
We now plan to train them in computer skills especially the girls and young women who have already attained some basic formal education.
Dear Chief Guest we would like to ask you to become our patron, so as to properly lobby for us, promote us because being a woman and one who identifies with the local persons, we feel you are the right person for us. Our selection to invite you today was carefully thought. We request that you lobby for us to obtain some computers to be able to start a computer centre for women and girls here in Mafubira. We shall work out a plan for sustainability of the centre. We need at least ten computers with accessories which is about 20 million.
We also plan to set up a second bakery in Mafubira to train more women and girls in baking skills, this requires an eco-friendly oven, a cake mixer and other accompanying equipment totalling to about 25 million. The first bakery is in Mpumudde and is small. The directors alone cannot quickly mobilize the funds for these two projects we need support.
Let me take this opportunity to thank all of you, the community, and Local council chairpersons 1, 2 and 3 and sub county community development officer. Without you we would not have an office here and our programs would not run smoothly, you have been cooperative. Mr. Opio Ouma, the District Senior Probation Officer, as a young organization, we fail here and there, disturb you time and again but you are always patient with us. His Highness the Royal Chief Ntembe, we have no words to express our gratitude to you because you welcomed us in this area when you were the LC1 chairperson, you guided us and mobilized the community during our first trainings, you introduced us to other offices and you have always promoted and recommended us for support, we thank you hugely.
We are grateful to all of you who have helped us crawl and stagger onto our feet like a baby. Without you we would not be WELL. Continue with that support as we strive to empower our women and children out of the apparent marginalization situations.
Thank You and Safe Journey back
NYAPENDI ANNE TERESA
CHAIRPERSON -WELL