LIRA-Odokomit Women`s Tailor Group in Lira City East Division is training child mothers and school dropouts in tailoring and cutting garments.
According to the group`s chairperson, Esther Amule Zawadi, those enrolled are; reformed sex workers, housemaids, bar waitresses, house cleaners, single mothers and laundry cleaners, among others.
Amule said the group started way back in 2012 with 10 members to help child mothers and school dropouts who were going through tough times. They would first enroll eight girls in their first year of operation.
“When we noticed, we came together as concerned mothers and collected Shs 500, 000, to start a tailoring workshop. This is how started Odokomit Women`s Tailor Group,” she said.
“These girls completed and joined us and became full members adding our number to 18 and this boosted our morale to recruit more to train,” she added.
The group has its workshop in Aroma Street in the city centre and currently training 15 youths in tailoring and cutting garments. It has so far passed out 200 youth, the majority now owning their own businesses after acquiring skills.
“We have passed out over 200 youth and a number of them have opened their workshops and are successful,” she added.
Frank Mugabi, the spokesperson of the ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development said the group received a financial boost of Shs10 million from Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme [UWEP] and is progressing successfully.
“They started small and the business had stalled due to lack of capital but UWEP came in with the much-needed financial support and now they are thriving. This is the kind of transformation that the designers and framers of the women’s fund envisioned,” he added.
He said women are committed to their businesses and with a little push, they can have a huge effect on the country’s development.
“Research has shown that money in the hands of women goes to support the entire household, therefore we should strive to enhance the incomes of women,” he said.
He said the training of child mothers has a multiplier effect. “We have witnessed in other parts of the country the progress UWEP has made,” he said.
He said countries like the Gambia and South Sudan, among others, have been to Uganda to benchmark UWEP.
UWEP is a financial programme designed to extend interest-free credit to women in groups.
https://thecooperator.news/former-street-children-graduate-in-vocational-training-skills/
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