BUNYANGABU – Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) in partnership with Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) have trained 100 women on bakery and mindset change in Bunyangabu district.
UWEP National Coordinator, Winfred Matsiko said, skilling and mindset change in women will empower them to fight poverty.
“The government’s intention is to eradicate poverty by economically empowering women. When a woman attains skills training and is economically empowered, nothing can stop her from getting out of poverty,” Matsiko said.
She said UWEP signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Uganda Industrial Research Institute to train women groups in different skills like bakery, and mindset change, among others.
In Bunyangabu district, 100 women from 20 groups were given hands on skills in bakery and mindset change.
The Communications and Marketing Manager, at Uganda Industrial Research Institute, Denis Dokoria said, they believe that people remain in a vicious circle of poverty because of limited skills.
“We are coming out to give skills to women groups like what we have done now because skilling is the way to go. We are here for mindset change and bakery, next time we shall train them in a different thing,” he said.
Dokoria urged them to put in practice what they learnt and teach their colleagues who didn’t get an opportunity to be part of the 100 participants.
He however, appealed to women to use the exact recipe that was given to them in order to get quality results.
“The critical thing with skills is quality. Nobody will buy your products if they are not of good quality,” he said.
The UWEP Regional Coordinator, Herbert Tuhumwire, encouraged women to get involved in value addition.
“I have realized that there are very few people who are involved in value addition. Let’s have at least four groups in making wine, four groups making crisps, four groups venturing in mushrooms among others,” Tuhumwire said.
The Bunyangabu district Chairperson LCV, James Ategeka Mugarama encouraged women groups to utilize the money they receive from UWEP very well and refund it for others to benefit.
He commended women groups which were doing well and encouraged them to utilize the skills they got to get out of poverty.
Annet Nyakana, one of the women who were trained in mindset change said the training opened their eyes and will help them in ensuring that their projects succeed.
“We learnt how to use our whole body to ensure our businesses grow. We were also taught how to keep records which was among the challenges we have been facing in our groups,” she said.
She requested her fellow women to practice what they learnt and teach other group members who didn’t attend the training.
Beatrice Mwesige, one of the participants who attended bakery lessons said it was a great opportunity to learn by doing.
“We have been lacking such trainings because sometimes we want to learn something but money hinders us because nobody is willing to teach you for free but since we have got such an opportunity, we shall also teach our colleagues,” she said.
Mwesige however noted that the issue of capital remains the biggest challenge now because materials to use like an oven and mixer are very expensive.
Background
The Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) is an initiative of the government of Uganda, that is aimed at improving access to financial services for women and equipping them with skills for enterprise growth, value addition and marketing of their products and services.
UWEP, implemented as a rolling programme under the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (MGLSD), is intended to empower Ugandan women for economic development.
The Programme is designed to address the challenges women face in undertaking economically viable enterprises including the limited access to affordable credit, limited technical knowledge and skills for business development, limited access to markets as well as information regarding business opportunities.
The programme is envisaged to increase participation of women in business development, increase their incomes, livelihood security and overall quality of life.
The overall goal of the programme is to empower Ugandan women to improve their income levels and their contribution to economic development.
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