Empowering Women in a Post -Covid world
Inevitably, we must speak about the impact that the COVID pandemic has had on the lives of our artisans in Uganda.
The women have overcome so many hurdles in their lives to be in the position they are, able to use their skills to make just enough money to feed their children. These hurdles are not to be taken lightly either, they include extreme poverty, HIV and AIDs, domestic abuse and fearing for their lives. With the pandemic striking Uganda, this situation has only become harder.
Across all of Uganda, intimate partner violence is an important public health crisis negatively impacting the health and economic status of its civilians. In one study, 78.5% of women were found to have experienced at least one type of abuse, significantly determined by alcohol use by their male partners [1]. Directly, this abuse is affecting the opportunities women have to break free of the associated challenges and find work, independence and ultimately empowerment for themselves.
Empowerment through working independently as a woman in Uganda is an enormous feat. However, many existing inequalities regarding women’s economic and personal empowerment have only been exaggerated by the recent pandemic, undermining many initiatives in place to provide these women with work.
“41% of Ugandans are living in poverty.”
Tourism, while slowly returning, came to a halt for eighteen months, bringing with it a huge knock on effect for trade in the local area of the Bwindi rainforest. Beautifully handcrafted goods are being stored away and the women who’ve worked tirelessly to gain the skills to create them were forced to return to the fields, to their old life of digging, instability, and consequent abject poverty.
To provide some context and build a picture of Ugandan life… [2]:
- 41% of Ugandans are living in poverty.
- Almost 50% of the population is under the age of 15 - representing one of the youngest populations globally.
- More than 1 million refugees are seeking asylum in Uganda.
- 76% live in rural areas
- 73% of workers are in the agriculture sector
- 41% of people live on less than $1.90/day
Education in Uganda is another crucial issue affecting the future of women and adolescents from breaking free of a life full of domestic violence, poverty, and sexual abuse.
With only 1 in 4 children starting primary school making it to secondary education and less than half (40%) of students being literate by the end of primary school. [3]
The prevalence of HIV continues to afflict many households across the country. It is the leading cause of death for adults and is still the most serious health problem in Uganda today, with about 1.5 million people (10% of the total population) estimated to be infected with the HIV virus [4].
Despite all of these enormous battles women have been facing for lifetimes, Ugandan initiatives have been set up across the country to enable people to empower themselves and work for a better future. A boom in growth of these initiatives began around the early 2000s and was gaining traction. However, the pandemic has brought major challenges to the continuation of such initiatives, plunging many back into lives of despair and desperation.
After 18 months of lockdowns living with COVID, the vast majority of people’s financial support has slowed and tourism remains slow. What can be done to push forwards once more with the vital empowerment initiatives?
What the women of Uganda need most right now is to maintain their hope, pride, dignity, energy, positivity and productivity.
How can we help provide these things?
It starts here, with buying into a business and giving that important support as a consumer for those in real need. BIK is not about handing out charity, it is about the raw sense of empowerment and what it actually means for these women. How it actually changes their lives in a tangible way. It’s about truth. It’s about action.
Skilled work keeps hope alive in their lives and in their communities. In the absence of work, income, government financial support, and now emerging cuts to foreign aid, it is up to grassroots organisations and social enterprises based on kindness to step up, step in, and help. No longer can kindness be an optional part of a business.
“It’s about truth. It’s about action.”
Our vision is to speak to our post-COVID conscious buyers by creating a more impactful buying experience. Buying a throw or a tote bag is not just about owning a beautifully handcrafted item from Africa, it is about being involved in change, and being forever a part of the lives of these women and their professional and personal growth.
[1] https://conflictandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13031-019-0219-8
[2] https://opportunity.org/our-impact/where-we-work/uganda-facts-about-poverty
[3] https://www.unicef.org/uganda/what-we-do/education
[4] http://www.fao.org/3/t2942e/t2942e02.htm
