There is increasing evidence to show that female-headed house holds face the incidence of poverty much more than the male-headed ones. A study in Botswana found out that male-headed households had about 2.6 times and 8 times more earning power in the urban areas and rural areas respectively[1].  This situation places enormous responsibility on women as sole breadwinners and has adverse implications for productivity and income generation at the house hold level and for child survival and development. Considering that the chances for a widow, more so an AIDS one, to find a spouse - be it part-time, are immeasurably remote, then it is a   fore gone conclusion that their situation is bound to be ugly.  Yet more research in Uganda about will writing and succession planning reveals that well as standby guardians  (those to whom children are willed prior to parental deaths) are predominantly male, it is women who assume much of the responsibility for orphaned children ultimately[2].


STAO found out that the income generating capacity of these households is profoundly constrained by numerous dependent children; lack of opportunity to accumulate productive resources like cattle, goats, and farming implements; and difficulty in getting access to credit. They are further constrained by limited education and training which limits their employability. STAO has countered this trend by organizing widows in groups, and then offer them different skills, depending on their own choice and demonstrable ability for sustainability. Some have chosen to learn sewing, and to these STAO gave 30 sewing machines to 30 groups, each with 4 members. 

STAO staff handing out goats to widows as part of income generating project

STAO staff handing out goats to widows as part of income generating project

These widows are also trained in personal financial management, idea generation and entrepreneurship development, and - as expected - how to live positively with AIDS, or how to avoid it all together. Those that excel are fronted and recommended for funding from any of the three microfinance institutions that we partner with, or any other of their choice. 

 

The Director listens and notes tribulations of a widow-headed household

Another group is being trained in the making of marketable local handicrafts such that in the event that resources make a way, a shop that specializes in only these products will be put up in either Kampala or Jinja. STAO is also involved in the promotion of vegetable farming, in a bid to bring the required nutritional needs of these people as close to them as possible, income generation notwithstanding. STAO buys the inputs such as hoes, watering cans, wheelbarrows, fertilizers, seeds and the like. To depart from the subsistence norm, the clients of this project are required to posses two gardens- one for home and the other for commercial use. Should funds become available, STAO is planning to scale up this project as it has proved to be highly beneficial to the widows in particular and the PLWAs in general.

Crafts made by the widows that are marketed on the arts market in Jinja & Kampala

Widows learning the making of mats; a major crafts sellout.

1 Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Botswana. POLICY ON WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT. 1995. Gaborone.

[2] HORIZONS. 2003. Succession Planning In Uganda. Washington, USA,