Bwindi Women's Community Center

Evelyn, Denis' wife, runs the Bwindi Women's Community Center, having returned to the Buhoma area after getting a degree in tourism wanting to give something back to women.  She remembers her own mother, who was known in the community for having only one dress, and no shoes.  This in a community where women wear only dresses. Evelyn wants a better life for women.  There are 300 women enrolled in the programs at the Women's Center, and she tries to target the poorest (like her mother), and those in the local area.  The center teaches women skills that can empower them to change their lives.  Buying materials and making a product to sell is powerful.  It sounds lofty and it is, but their needs are modest.

When there are no funds, they don't operate, because they need to pay the women to come and feed them while they're working.  The women produce things for sale that are made on treadle sewing machines.  I remember my grandmother having one.  You rock a "treadle" back and forth with your feet creating the power and guiding the speed.  There were three women sewing, two cutting and two hand sewing when I was there.  One was feeding her baby.  They produce patchwork placemats, aprons, napkins, and cosmetic and shopping bags, all from African cloth.  I bought as much as I could.  Evelyn pays the women 5,000UGX (about $2USD) per day and feeds them lunch when they come to make it easier on their families for them to be away for the day, and to reward them for work outside the home.  Evelyn runs it as a business so she can show the women a different life than having babies, and the backbreaking work of survival that is all most of them know.

I asked her what she needed.  She needs a pit latrine so that the women don't have to relieve themselves in the bushes and woods surrounding the site.  She also wants to try some electric machines to encourage more creativity and products.

Sponsored by a Canadian group of women, another project underway is bike repair.  The women get road bikes to ride and maintain, and come once a week to learn bike repair.  They were learning to change spokes this week.  The plan is that they will rent and repair tourist's bikes.  Denis explained that they try to repair things by trial and error first, and then they look in the manual.  I couldn't help myself saying that it was a typical male approach, but Denis said the women learned well that way too...maybe...

A new electric sewing machine costs $150, and the pit latrine will be $2500.  They've saved $200 towards it.  Let me know if you'd like to help.  I'll be happy to collect your donations and get them to Evelyn.  It's money well spent for women.