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WEC-WECATET

In This Issue

Kapchorwa LRP

Activities

Anti-FGM information

Brick brings changes

Partners Profile

How to design a blog ? Drama performance on Female Genital Mutilation in Likil, Benet. Photo: Kapchorwa LRP

Quarterly Newsletter from Kapchorwa Local Rights Program First Edition, July-September 2013

transformation

A new dawn: The advent of the 1st ev-er Kapchorwa LRP Newsletter

By AGGREY KIBET, Program Co-ordinator

Kapchorwa LRP

“I am proud to introduce

to you our 1st ever quarterly newsletter in Actionaid-Kapchorwa Local Rights pro-gramme. This product is no ordinary initiative; it is a re-affirmation of possibilities and effectiveness of Actionaid’s partnership ap-proach in the anti-poverty arena. It demonstrates our believe that together we are able to go gather our strength, synergies, expertise and contextual understanding to deliver a joint program to-wards the welfare of the Se-bei people and beyond. The Newsletter is solely born out of the belief and affirma-tion that the LRP is doing a lot but needed to create a plat-form for sharing innovations, development experiences, challenges, success and im-pact that we are making in the lives of poor and excluded men, women, girls and boys in the sebei region.(cont. Page 2)

Women Garden Model Inspires

Women Empowerment

-BISHAL RANAMAGAR-

Mrs. Grace Solimo, aged 35, a mother of six children prepares a meal for her family much earlier every Monday and Friday during normal days in a week because she has to attend to extra work with other women. Mrs. Solimo, a resident of Kepteret sub-county Kapchorwa district, has to contribute her time to the woman's garden from her busy schedule. Her identity is not only limited to housewife now, she is a member of Women REFLECT Circle also. She says, 'Women REFLECT Circle is changing my daily life style in different ways.'

Kapchorwa is situated on the slopes of Mt. Elgon in eastern Uganda. The district is characterized by three ecological zones: low land that constitutes 33% of the total land area, This area is deserted due to insecurity caused by cattle rustling. The mid-dle zone constitutes 33% densely populated and heavily cultivated because of the population pressure by the displaced people and 34%) protected by the nation-

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“ActionAid should build a shelter” -Kissa Martin

In 2011, ActionAid Uganda Kapchorwa Local Right Program (LRP) lunched Women Protection Center (WPC) project popularly known as the anti-GBV shelter in Kween district. WPC has been working closely with Kween District Police Sta-tion since its establishment. WPC is directly coor-dinating and benefiting from the partnership with Child and Family Protection Unit (CFPU) of Kween District Police Station (KDPS). In WPC, most of cases are directly related to the CFPU. Mr. Kissa Martin is in-charge of this unit in Kween central police station and working closely with WPC staff. Bishal Ranamagar and Pricilla Yeko from ActionAid Kapchorwa LRP interviewed Mr. Kissa in his office about the effectiveness of WPC. Here are the excerpts from the interview; What types of child and women related cases are in Kween district? Kissa: Mainly we are getting report about defilement, rape, domestic violence, child neglect, child abuse and we are really trying to handle those cases serious-ly. Before every day, the cases reported but after establishment of WPC the cases against GBV case are reducing. When WPC and CFPU started to work together? Kissa: We are working with WPC, since its establishment in Kween district. We are working together on the cases of Gender based violence, fails to provide necessity, defilement, rape. They support us by filling Police form to collect evi-dences. They help standing behalf of the clients in court through their lawyer. How are responding the cases referred from WPC? Kissa: We are responding the cases referred from WPC as soon as possible. We register those cases, find out what type of cases and if there is necessity to ar-rest. We arrest them and take them to court. After presence of WPC in Kween we are success to take many cases to the court. What you are hoping to achieve from WPC/ActionAid? Kissa: If WPC can built a shelter for those, who suffered from GBV it will be very effective for the victims. Also sometime victims have no money and they have to spend whole day in police station without food so ActionAid can pro-vide them meals, accommodation. In addition, we are hoping from ActionAid for police to facilitate us to collect evidences on GBV cases. We are also hoping to get support from ActionAid to filling the Police form 3.

Con’t. From page 1

A new dawn… As an organization, we are proud to have a presence right from Kapchor-wa, through Kween to Bukwo dis-tricts in Eastern Uganda responding to dynamic poverty contexts using both our sponsorship fundraising product and project fundraising initia-tives to tackle community led and innovative anti poverty programs. This is only possible working through and with partnerships. We therefore pride in working with partners; Tuban organic farmers’ Association (TOFA) in Kapteret sub-county-Kapchorwa district, Community Action For Human Rights (CAFHUR) in Binyiny (Kween District), Benet lobby group in Greater Benet (Kween district), Association For World Education in Nakapiripirit district on local democra-cy and governance work. We are also working with Kapchorwa/Bukwo women in Peace initiative in Bukwo district on post conflict interventions, women rights and advocacy work. The delivery of our work is mainly through our community-based struc-tures, which include the REFLECTION-ACTION women groups, Youth, Activ-ista, children and community political/ technical leaders in government. All this are key to achieving our develop-ment goals embedded in our Country strategy paper 2012-2017 and the more contextualised LRP strategy 2012-2017. We sincerely hope we shall be able to bridge the gaps that exists in commu-nication between Action-Aid Kapchorwa and its stakeholders, com-munity, women and youth groups, government officials and even sup-porters through this newsletter. We are confident this initiative will be sustained especially with the inspiration of Mr. Bishal Ranamagar from Nepal who is currently based at Kapchorwa LRP supporting our staff and partners in technical aspects of M$E, Advocacy and Documentation. We do hope everyone reading will enjoy this maiden issue. Please feel free to give feedback and comments to the editors and we shall be glad to incorporate the same in our feedback corner of the next issue.

Enjoy!!!!

Source: 50womenblog.org

Kissa Martin

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Association for World Education–Uganda National

Captor (AWE-UNC) AWE was formed in Denmark in 1971. Learning form communities and sharing constructive ideas was the mind set to the formation when education reflected an awareness of our intimate relationship to the world as a whole. AWE-UNC began to share with ideas with CSS groups in terms of capacity enhancement.

AWE has a vision for a society where vul-nerable and marginalised people enjoy healthy, social and economic wellbeing, and lead harmonious, mutually supportive and informed productive lives.” AWE-UNC’s overall objective is to empower local communities with skills and knowledge in democratic leadership and good governance system. These are the areas of work of AWE

Promotion of Democracy, peaceful coexistence and good governance

Promotion of right to Education to have confident children/citizens

Protection of human rights for chil-dren and women.

Prevention and response to gender based violence

Livelihoods improvement and food security

Disaster risk prevention , response and management

AWE-UNC started partnership with ActionAid in 2005. The project in partner-ship has been aiming to empowering communities to participate in local de-mocracy and embrace good governance through a non deductive approach. The partnership has been mainly in Karamoja region, Nakapiripirit district including Na-bilatuk, Namalu, Lolachat, Loregea, Kako-mongole and Nakapiripirit town council.

Contact Detail of AWE-UNC Plot 24, Mbale Municipality

Northern Division-Teso Zone Namboozo Road, Mbale

P.O.Box 1072, Mbale, Uganda Tel: +256 45 4436 389 Fax: +256 454 436 389

Email: aweuganda95@gmail.com Website: www.aweunc.org

Key Contact Person: Mr. Anyeko Michael

Director of Programs Cell: +256 772 870 197

Female Genital Mutilation; a bad practice

Background Information FGM among the Sabiny communities (Inhabitants of Kapchor-wa, Bukwo and Kween district) is a practice conducted always after every two years except on some occasions that it can be done on odd years. This however only where a girl / a woman is either is on a hurry, to get married or knows she has just con-ceived. The practice is commonly high among the Sabiny and Pokot of Uganda and most of the ethnic groups bordering Uganda to the East who happen to be the Kalenjins. However, other districts where groups that carryout the practice have settled include Isingiro, Kamuli, Kamwenge, Masindi, Bukwo and Bugiri.

1: Origin of FGM among the Sabiny Community. The genesis of female genital mutilation among the Sabiny community is not clear. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the exact origin of female genital mutilation is not known. However, it is worthy noting that that the origin of FGM among the Sabiny dates back to the existence of their earlier ancestors. Though there was lack of written records, there are several schools of thought that have come in to explain the origin of FGM in the Sabiny tradition. This goes as follows: -

The Sebei Legend According to this legend, female genital cutting started when one time a girl became so sick for a long period of time. The girl became very thin and weak. People lost hope of her recovery. She was therefore nicknamed “Cherewen” meaning very thin. This could be synonymous to the AIDS disease currently. Her parents went to a witch doctor to ascertain the cause of the sickness. The parents were advised to cut part of the external genital organs. When circumcision was done and the wound cured, the girl regained her health. The practice was then looked at as a method of curing uncertain diseases, and there-fore adopted as a tradition, which was later handed over from one generation to another. What the legend does not explain here is how this practice became fashionable in the Sabiny soci-ety in regard to men’s circumcision. The folktale of being dirty According to this folktale, the origin of female genital cutting was when the Sabiny woman and man lived happily together in the family. They each felt uncomfortable and thought they were dirty. One day, they decided to circumcise one another. The wife first circumcised the man, then also the man also cir-cumcised the wife. After circumcision, they lived together as a happy and clean couple. Soon their neighbors copied the habit and spread it among the ethnic group. This folktale does not explain the situation today were circumcisers for girls/women are women and for boys are men. Is circumcision a better way of addressing the problem of being dirty. Now, in the presence of good sanitation, maintenance of good personal hygiene and access to clean water, should circumcision be used to address

Partner Profile

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Brick Blocks Bring Changes to Lives!

“Sheila’s IDP camp was one of the focus areas of KWIPI with support from ActionAid International Uganda, which aims to ensure that vulnerable

populations have sustainable peace, food secure and coexistence.”

“Peace without income generating activities is not complete,” explains Sheila Chemutai. After she re-ceived a brick making training organized by Kap-chorwa Women in Peace Initiative (KWIPI) on re-turnees and reformed warriors, her search for a sus-tainable income generating activity led her and twenty other women from two neighboring villages to start brick making projects. The women hope their work will give them sustainable income gener-ating source even when there seem to be no money with people some time in a year. Sheila is 23 years old and has three children two girls aged twelve and nine and one boy aged two. She explaining her days like “There’s no free space. Wherever I go, there is a job to be done. I wake up very early to prepare tea and food for my children, before walking to fetch firewood from Aralam hill to be sold in Bukwo town a trip that takes two to three hours. In the bush, there are wild animals and even Pokot herdsmen who threaten to rape wom-en. As the day draws to a close, I come back from Bukwo Town prepare a meal for my children, before finally going to bed around 10pm.” Sheila Chemutai lives in Riwo Internal Displaced Per-son (IDP) camp in Kapkware village north east of

Bukwo District, which runs along the Kenyan border. This pastoralist zone suffered from cyclical cattle rustling and food insecurity, demanding increasingly innovative ways of intervention on peace and resettlement. As the population continued to grow and traditional systems of rangeland and con-flict management eroded, people’s livelihoods were under great strain. Sheila’s IDP camp was one of the focus areas of KWIPI with support from ActionAid International Uganda, which aims to ensure that vulnerable popu-lations have sustainable peace, food secure and coex-istence. KWIPI’s program, “Food security and income genera-tion to IDPs and Returnees”, aimed to improve access income generation to reformed warriors and return-ees for 573 pastoralist households. Working in part-nership with ActionAid, the project especially works to improve women’s access sustainable income gen-erating activities. Women in IDP camps bear heavy burdens, particularly during hunger and famine peri-ods when the men migrate with their livestock or in-creasingly, travel to cities and towns to offer their services as day laborers.

(Cont. page 7)

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ActionAid International Uganda – AAIU

Kaprhorwa LRP Activities

Training on evidence collection and management -by Kapchorwa LRP

Kapchorwa LRP organized two days training on evi-dence collection and management of Gender based violence for Police and Health Officers held on 30-31 August 2013. There were altogether 34 participants including 14 female and 20 males. According to Mr. Patrick Kitiyo, Project officer of Kapchorwa LRP, this training was organized to enhance capacity to po-lice and health officers in the area of evidence col-lection to end gender based violence. “Due to lack of professional knowledge on evidence collection propitiators are not punished,” Kitiyo addressed, “so this training was organized to give justice to the GBV survivors.”

During the training Biingi Patrick, District Police Commander of Kapchorwa facilitated session about evidence collection, District Police Commander for Kween Ssempala Bashir and Rebecca Katisi from DPO Kapchorwa had facilitated on Domestic Violence Act, 2010 simultaneously Naima Robert from District Magistrate office facil-itated on Major requirements for successful prosecution of GBV perpetrators. Senior Clinical Officer of Chebonet Health Centre III Omoding Benard said training empowered him to handle GBV cases properly. “It empowers me with knowledge and skills on evidence collection,” Benard mentioned, “especially as a medical person I got ideas about how to collect evidences on defilement cases.”

Women are trained on REFLECTION Action

-by Kapchorwa LRP

REFLECTION Action (RA) training was organized on

29-30 April 2013 by Kapchorwa LRP to address Fe-

male Genital Mutilation (FGM) campaign. Training

had the objective of to equipping REFLECTION AC-

TION facilitators, group leaders and matrons of

school to raise voices against FGM. There were alto-

gether 37 participants including women from vari-

ous parts of the greater Benet together with Action-

Aid staffs and Inspirator.

According to Aggrey Kibet, LRP Coordinator and train-

ing facilitator Actionaid introduced this new approach

to make Actionaid work more effectively. During the

training Kibet introduced various tools and tech-

niques of the RA to the participants. “RA methodolo-

gies empower communities to liberate themselves by

standing up, speaking out and challenge FGM beliefs

and practices,” said Kibet.“ Through these skills,they

challenge FGM beliefs and practices by influencing

social change, behaviors and attitudes from within

and using locally available human and other re-

sources .”

In the second day of training participants developed

plan of action to implement training learning and

skills in their area. Training participant Chelimo Naomi

said RA training helps her to know more tools and

techniques to address FGM issues in the community

level. “I hope this learning can help to reduce FGM

cases.” She said.

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Volunteering at ActionAid

“I am Josephine Cherotin, 32 years of age, married to

Cherotwo Wilson and having 5 children. I am a resident of Kapchekwoi village, Kaptoyoy parish, Kaptoyoy S/county in Kween I wish to share my story-a story of Domestic violence. My husband decided to sale family land way back without my consent and I even learnt when the land sale processes had taken course. In trying to object the transac-tion, my husband became too notorious and started mas-sively beating me and the children and even evicted the children from home because the children were on my side. He went to the level of threatening and even wanted to cut me, had I not to escape narrowly and take refuge at the neighborhood and worst of all is that it a was at night.

I therefore went to my parent’s home and while there I was advised by my father to report the issue to Community Action For Human Rights-CAFHUR (Partner of ActionAid Kapchorwa LRP) and I did it immediately. The matter was registered and my husband was summoned to attend a mediation meeting, which he responded to. In the course of this meeting, my husband was tasked to explain the es-sence of the the family land sale. To this he mentioned that at his work place, he made a loss of 3,000,000/= Ugshs and he was tasked to produce the money and the only alterna-tive was to dispose off family land because it had become difficult for him to explain to me because he feared he would be challenged. He then resorted to using force as any other man who is powerful in his home.

Realizing the heavy burden that had befell him and our family too. I was advised to surrender the land in a bit to have the matter resolved once and for all, which I accepted and the land was then sold at later time and the loss has been cleared and we are living harmonious because he felt respected. All the children are now at home and actively attending school. My husband is even planning to con-struct for me new buildings and even buy more other land

to compensate the lost land.”

By CHEROP ROBERT, Program Coordinator, CAFHUR

Mediation Yields a

better Family life "I can even circumcise you now, if u

are ready” when I was in Benet to collect stories about FGM, a woman said that to me. "0hh! My God I was so surprised by this statement". I said, "I don't want to be circumcised." I was pursuing my Bachelor degree in Public administration and Manage-ment from Uganda Christian Universi-ty. I had to complete my internship training and I chose ActionAid Kap-chorwa LRP to do my internship. During my internship, I went to meet with the women survived from Female geni-tal mutilation. At this time, I met with a woman from Benet who used to be a surgeon. She said me that she can cir-cumcise me if I am ready. ActionAid mission to work with the poor and excluded to eradicate poverty and injustice is a great deal to its work. In these regard I was touched and so I volunteered to sup-port them amongst our communities. In community mobi-lization, reporting and others. Life has been different. First I have learnt a lot from those communities, I am able to speak out as a youth for and against something. At Action-Aid you learn about your rights as a woman.One thing that surprises me is the regard of "women as property" yet this is a resource that women should own. Lately I have learnt about gender-based violence through involving in the vari-ous activities organized by ActionAid. I was privileged to move together with AA staff recently during one of the activities in story collection and documentation. In Future I suggest we advocate for laws or policies that ban men from marrying as many women as possible since this is another cause of gender-based violence in families. I met with the surgeon her name is Kokop Chemwetich, she started carrying out female genital mutilation during her early 30th, and she shared with me how she started to mutilate women. According to her, she used to get scary dreams at night and sometimes she used to find blood stains in her fingers. Therefore, she inquired from her el-ders who turned very happy because it was a sign the an-cestors had chosen her to be a ‘cutter’. They wished her good luck, “They said I was destined to be a surgeon by the gods. This was a blessing according to them. ‘I enjoyed cutting girls, because I was pleasing my ancestor's." She said she had to fulfill it. ‘However, pressures from organi-zation asking me to stop has been intense’. I found women from the community like her, who are practicing female genital mutilation but now they want to stop it because they got awareness about its negative impacts from ActionAid supported community campaigns . Aggrey Kibet, Program Coordinator of Kapchorwa LRP has put extra effort to ensure change through coordinating the implementation of FGM project activities. Mores so the team of ActionAid are an amazing team and always ready to serve including in inaccessible communities. This ‘has greatly inspired me.’ Bishal Inspirator for Kapchorwa LRP from Nepal has taught monitoring evaluation too. I am thankful for all of them.

PRICILLA YEKO, VOLUNTEERING IN KAPCHORWA LRP

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What is blog? "A blog (a contraction of the words web log) is a dis-cussion or informational site published on the WWW (World Wide Web) and consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first)."-wikipedia.org In that sense, blogging can be seen as a form of social networking. Indeed, bloggers do not only produce content to post on their blogs, but also build social relations with their readers and other bloggers. Blogging is became a good and simple way to spread your massage. In terms of the non-profit and commu-nity based organization blog is one of the easiest way to disseminate their organization. People are now having access to the internet either from the mobile to, so at this situation the blog can be a good way to publicize NGOs and also it is very helpful to raise fund for the. According to the Wikipedia.org on 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. On 13 October 2012, there were around 77 million Tumblr and 56.6 million WordPress blogs in existence worldwide. According to critics and other bloggers, Blogger is the most popular blogging service used today.

Why blogging There are few tangible reasons for NGOs and CSOs to do blogging, first one is it connect to the virtual world where they can share their information, thought and ideas of the organization. Blog is also very good way to attract or gain public concern and solidarity on their campaign or advocacy issue. Blog is playing a vital role to building relationship with the stakeholder and funding agency. If we cannot send or dissemi-nate our information to the mass then blog can help you as much as you can use it. Blog is not only a way of disseminating information to the mass it also virtu-al If any NGOs and CSOs do not have sufficient fund to host website, so there is an easy solution for the. You can find many website who are providing free

Why do I

blogging services. Here I am going to describe about some of the blog hosting websites. Signing up for a blog on any of these sites requires little more than a user name and password.

Blogger.com If you're serious about starting a blog but don't know much about hosting a website or coding HTML, Goog-le's Blogger is the best free tool you'll find, especially since the platform's significant improvements in 2011. Other Google tools, like Analytics, integrate seamless-ly and are available right from the main dashboard. WordPress.com Wordpress.com's comprehensive suite, but experi-enced bloggers who want full and deep control over their sites need look no farther. Wordpress.com is also well suited for new bloggers who plan to invest in their blogs long term. Posterous.com is an ideal place for beginning bloggers and micro bloggers to get their feet wet and post rapidly. Thumblr.com It is popular among visual bloggers (those who post artwork, photography, and design-themed content, and are light on text), Tumblr is a decent place for beginners and micro bloggers to get their feet wet and post rapidly.

Blog.com Blog.com is another popular WordPress-powered blogging platform. Weebly.com

Weebly offers more than just blogging it’s a fully fea-tured website builder. This site is very useful for the NGO or CBOs because they can modify it as a website. Weebly’s blog manager features a drag-and-drop in-terface, support for image galleries, slideshows, vide-o/audio, maps, etc. You can also find a basic guide to create blog in wordpress.com through this link http://www.slideshare.net/bishalnews/blog-designing-by-bishal-in-slideshare Source from Wikipedia.org, pcmag.com, sixrevisions.com

Collection by BISHAL RANAMAGAR

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As part of the project, in May 2009, KWIPI organized training on brick

making. 42 people were trained and 24 out this total were women. They learned how to improve their quality of living by making low cost bricks from locally available materials. “After the training I woke up from my sleep", Sheila said, “We used to say just that brick making is only for men. But now we can make our homes stand firm without depending on men.” In ad-dition, she mentioned that their children had one meal per day before they were trained on brick mak-ing; the children were exposed to malnutrition. "Now we are safe and have food to eat twice a day.” She reported. After returning to her village from the train-ing Sheila reports, “I asked Kapkware Village chair-man to organize an educational meeting. I was deter-mined to share what I had learned, I explained to my community the importance of making bricks as a means of sustainable income generating activity. At that time, because of the drought, most of the men were away – and even some of the women were mov-ing away as the land became drier. I gathered five women and had a discussion with them about making bricks in the village. After a week of digging and step-ping on the soil, we embarked on making bricks. By the end of three weeks, we had made 6,000 bricks. After seasoning them, we roasted and sold them to businessmen in Bukwo Town who were giving us 400/= per brick where we garnered Ush 2,400,000/=. This marked the end of trouble of looking for firewood and risking our lives in the bush. I decided I should be the model in my village so I took the initiative first." Indeed, now 8 of the 12 villages in her village have spots for making bricks for a livelihood. The elders have even created bylaws encouraging people to make bricks and avoid cattle rustling and risky ven-tures of looking for firewood in the bushes.

"Now we are safe and have

food to eat twice a day.”

Cont. from page 3

Bricks...

However, Sheila Chemutai explains, brick making is not the only source to realy on: “We need to have diversified forms of investing the income from the bricks. Money that I get from the project I also buy and sell vegetables to inhabitants of Riwo IDP camp.”

The group Sheila Chemutai founded now includes twenty-one women from neighboring settlements, ranging in age from 16 to 45. They have determined to do the project by themselves even if they cannot find additional support from KWIPI or the government. In particular, they have been saving to buy a plastic tar-paulins to cover the bricks during rain seasons “I know that building a big shade along the river is cost-ly this has made our group to buy the tarpaulins which are cost effective to cover the bricks from bright sunshine and rains.” Every sale each woman contributes 2,000/=. So far the women have saved 132,000/=. The women have asked for advice and help, and KWIPI is in a position to respond to their needs. As a first step KWIPI staffs plan to provide technical advice on how to construct shades from tarpaulins and pro-vide shade to the bricks. They also plan to provide learning visits with other communities making bricks so the women can exchange ideas and experiences. The work and commitment of Sheila Chemutai and her twenty friends and neighbors promises to make a significant difference in their own and their families’ lives. With the support of KWIPI and in support with Actionaid international Uganda, they can continue to build upon their knowledge and inspire others in their area to do the same. ndinyo2@yahoo.com

A girl sat on the

tap, this tap is

not working

now.

Photo: BISHAL

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farming both in small and large scale to fulfill their daily needs. They are facing major challenges of lack of capital and pressure on the land is heavy leading to over cultiva-tion and massive soil degradation and hence lower crop production and household incomes. In addition, there is no sufficient access of women in land rights. In 2012, ActionAid Inter-national Uganda procured 3-acre land in Kapteret under Women Rights in Agriculture (WORIA) project. Australi-an Aid has supported this project to empower women to be more involved in decision making as well as to increase food se-curity and incomes. Under the WORIA project ActionAid formed six REFLECT circles in the Keteret sub-county in partnership with Tuban Organic Farmers Association (TOFA). There are 150 women organized within the six RE-FLECT circle.

'This garden also inspires me to apply this skill into my own garden' 43 years Judith said, 'now I have some vegetable in my own garden.' According to her, the training on garden farming helps to provide proper and nutritious food for their family. Before joining reflect circle she was feeling they have no right to assets such as land. How-ever, after receiving some training on women rights and empowerment, she became aware about how wom-en must have access to land and control of assets. 'Now I am able to market my produce from my own garden which earlier had been denied by her husband.' she said, 'Through the training we acquired from ActionAid we as women have learnt how to demand for accountability from our leaders through Public Expenditure Tracking System (PETS).

ActionAid procured 3-acre land and handover to the group of women with a drip irrigation scheme. 35 years Grace is among those 150 women who have owner-ship of this land. Women are now engaging in vegetable farming throughout the year. All most all members of the group are illiterate because before the Sabiny commu-nity were not aware about the importance of girl educa-tion.

Grace Solimo has six children and use to work on this gar-den twice a week. "We are harvesting cabbage and Toma-to", Solimo said, while she was working in the garden, "after the training on farming, we are able to do it our-selves." She also shared she is successes to produce more matooke (Bananas) in her garden. It becomes her assets so it increased respect of her husband on her work and towards her. Last year they produced cab-bage and tomato and earned 980 thousand Shilling by its selling. They deposited this amount in the account of Kapteret United Women Development Association (KUWDA). KUWDA is the umbrella association of the six reflect circle group. Last year's amount will be used when

group in emergency. "This women's garden model program is very valuable for my family too" Kwosir REFLECT circle member Helen Cherop said. She is also working twice a week in the garden and happy to work here. According to Helen, her group members are applying the garden experience in their home as well. She has a kitchen garden where recently she planted onions. In addition, the group members are producing maize, bananas, bean and coffee. The knowledge gained from the group also helps them to in-crease knowledge on food security and incomes. "Now, our children at least get a healthy meal twice a day" mem-ber Helen said, before it was very hard to get healthy food." In addition, she shared she is getting the respect from her husbands after she started to apply her knowledge in her own home.

Before involving in the garden activities her husband's atti-tude was not good on her. 'Now he is respecting me and supporting me to crop vegetables.' She said in bright, smiling face. Local residential of Kwosir Mr. Steven Swatei is also happy with the reflect circle member. 'Now they are more busy and dedicated to producing vegetable.' Steven Said. He also mentions that the WORIA project ac-tivities also help to empower women. 'There is now a prop-er market' he states a problem, ' if there is sufficient mar-ket then the local product can get a good price and the women can earn more money. "It is not only a model of women's participation in agriculture, it's also a way to minimize violence against women," Kamwania Jafari, Pro-gram Coordinator of TOFA said. TOFA has been collaborat-ing with AAIU since 2003 to encourage organic farming and increase access of women in the land rights. "We have plans to register their women's association." Jafari shared his plan, "after that they can work as an independent organization" ActionAid provides training on sustainable farming, food security, wom-en's rights to women group members. It helps empower women to claim their rights," Aggrey Kibet, Program Coor-dinator of ActionAid Kapchorwa LRP says. He gave empha-sis on the economic empowerment of women to minimize violence against women. "We just gave them a clue for their empowerment through WORIA project," Aggrey add-ed, "Their active participation proved that women can do as per the man." Bishal.Magar@actionaid.org

Women of Kepteret working on their women garden. Photo: BISHAL

Con’t. From page 1

Women...

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Tuban Organic Farmers Association (TOFA) has worked in

responding to community needs and concerns for 11 years 2002-2013. It has a long term strategic goal of having a society free hunger and unemployment through ecological land use and sustainable management of natural resources and to achieve our vision and mission. Through REFLECT methodology for information sharing and promotion of collective action by the existing reflect circles and women groups. Provision of on spot support, farmer field days, field demonstration learning gardens, Public Expenditure Tracking Systems ( PETS) and Activista approaches to advo-cate and influence decision makers at all levels. Access Control and ownership over productive resource by wom-en in the community by building capacity of women on in-come generating activities is our key result area. Our pro-grams are aimed at improving food security situations among poor resource women in the community and providing a friendly platform where the women farmers can share experience and give feedback to each other. Child sponsorship for purposes of strengthening the organ-izations resource base/fundraising strategy.

By KAMWANIA JAFARI

TOFA designed programs aimed at responding to critical issues affecting the poor resource farmers in the community and enable to discuss issues affecting them, set down possible solutions to this issues and key stakehold-ers to help in supporting each action point. This interven-tion also builds the capacity of the farmers to understand the environment they work in and how best to utilize the locally available resources to earn a living and all the above is aimed at improving the livelihoods of the marginalized and the poor to live a life of dignity.

The REFLECT that TOFA uses poetry a future of how to end Hunger, low house hold incomes among the women farm-ers, and a community that engages local leaders through active participation in the community based participatory planning process and getting involved form the beginning and putting Human based approach (HRBA) at the center of our program implementation while managing child sponsorship for purposes of strengthening the organizations resource base/fundraising strategy.

kamwaniaj@yahoo.com

TOFA is Walking Together with Community

Mr. Patrick Kitiyo, Project Officer

of Kapchorwa LRP, facilitating

the Discussion on Gender

Based Violence among Reli-

gious and Opinion Leaders in

Binyiny Church of Uganda on 7

October 2013.

In that program the leaders are

prepared their action plan to

organize various activities to

raise awareness on GBV in their

community. .

That program was also organized to reviews the role of leaders.

11

For “WEC-WECATET” quarterly newsletter

ActionAid International Uganda Kapchorwa Local Rights Program

Along with Staff; Aggrey Kibet, Patrick Kitiyo, Christopher Agaba, Nantine Chebet, Kiprotwo George,

Pricilla Yeko, Stephen Cheruwaru

P.O. Box 7, Kapchorwa

Tel: +256 (0) 392772834

Email: Kapchorwa.Uganda@actionaid.org

Coordination, Editing and Designed by ;

Bishal Ranamagar INSPIRATOR for Kapchorwa LRP

Bishal.Magar@actionaid.org +256 (0) 783536582

Con. From page 3

Female...

History of origin of the Sabiny tribe The Kalenjin are said to have had their ancestral origin in Ethiopian highlands. They moved southwards final-ly settled in Kenya. The Sabiny are a section of the large Kalenjin speaking people found in Kenya. During the colonial boundary demarcation, the Sabiny lied on the Uganda side separate from the large Kalenjin group in Kenya. But when one looks at the ethnic groups were Kalenjin migrated from, they too circum-cise.

The folktale of way of living as hunters and pastoral-ist. The practice of female genital mutilation among the Sabiny is traced back to their early life-styles. Accord-ing to this folktale, the Sabiny were hunters and cat-tle keepers. This occupation, which often kept the time. By cutting off their women’s genitalia, the wives

would maintain their faithfulness and discouraged men away from their women for, extended periods of promiscuity. The practice continues to-date, despite the transformation of the Sabiny into settled agricul-tural community.

The folktale of being strong and brave A certain girl, a relative of a prophet, was circumcised and she became very strong and brave. She was mar-ried off for a very high bride price. So the Sabiny opt-ed for the practice to increase the market and bride price of their girls. An uncircumcised girl would not get married and was believed to be vulnerable to evil spirits and curses.

The Sabiny living to date, adopted the practice as a culture regarding circumcision as a sacred ritual that was sanctioned by their ancestors and cultural beliefs and norms were put in place to protect and maintain the practice.

No more FGM

REFLECT circle members of Kwosir

performing the drama against

female genital mutilation (FGM).

They organized this sensitization

program after participating in the

Reflection Action Training

organized by Kapchorwa LRP.