Follow the Journey

Hello friends and family,
Just wanted to give you all a quick update on the past couple days here in Kampala. Kampala is definitely the busiest city we have been to thus far on our journey. To me this is a little stressful, especially trying to cross the street, but some people really seem to enjoy city life. Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit one of the eight Baha’I temples in the world and learn a little about the religion. The temple was beautiful with a large round dome at the top and had nine doors to represent the nine religions the Baha’I faith is based on. The books from all nine religions are studied and read from. It is a monotheistic religion that is relatively new. It was founded in 1844 and has about 100,000 followers in Uganda and 8 million worldwide. The religion preaches peace and love and some of it’s main principals include gender equality, removing prejudice, and a connection to science and reason. While asking one of the workers questions about the faith he mentioned that the religion condemns homosexuality. This really upset me since that statement goes completely against everything I had previously learned about the Baha’I faith. However, that same worker lost a lot of his credibility when he asked me if the Jewish religion, one of the nine religions the Baha’I faith is based on, believed in Jesus as the Messiah. If he was studying all nine religions like he said, you would think he would at least know the answer to that. Also, we are in Uganda after all and it could just be his personal belief, or I would say prejudice, (so much for that principle) coming out that may not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the religions as a whole but who knows.
Today we visited with Beads for Life, an organization that works with impoverished women to create sustainable businesses. The women, after going through an orientation and selection process to make sure they are motivated, that the program is right for them, and that they are actually impoverished, take part in a 18 month long program. In the beginning of the program, the women learn numeracy skills and start making beads out of paper and varnish at home which they sell to Beads for Life. The women learn how to open a bank account and put half of the profits they make, which is usually around one hundred to two hundred dollars per month, in savings. The other half get’s put in a business fund which I will discuss later. The women in the program learn about business and marketing and towards the end of their 18 month training they make a business plan. The goal is not to make and sell beads for the rest of their lives because this is not a sustainable living for them in Uganda. Instead, they must think of another business venture they would like to be a part of such as farming or shop keeping. After making a plan the organization helps them one on one to use the money in their business fund to get started. After 18 months the women graduate but they are always a member of beads for life and can always ask for advice if their business is not going well or they want to improve. The organization never gives handouts and we learned a lot about the problem with other organizations doing this. When people are so used to receiving they may become lazy and not want to work. That is why the organization does it’s best to find women who really are motivated. Another challenge Beads for Life faces is domestic violence due to women becoming the bread winners of the family. They try to get men involved in supporting the women to avoid such issues arising. The organization stretches far beyond the beads project and has other projects as well as connects women to organizations that specialize in areas Beads for Life does not reach such as education and health care.
Tomorrow we leave for the Rhino Fund so stay tuned for updates on our adventures there!
Goodbye for now,
Amanda and the rest of the Kifaru group