UWADS Case STudy

The Ugandan Women Advocacy and Development Services (UWADS), is a community based organization in Mbale, Uganda working to provide economic opportunities to those women and girls who would be otherwise be left out of the development equation. The project envisioned the establishment of a vocational skills school in the heart of Mbale where young women could obtain training in practical and marketable skills.

Higher participation of women in the social and economic development of the community is desperately needed to fight the prevailing extreme poverty.

UWADS first course focused on training young women in the baking trade as well as establishing a framework of teaching practical and marketable skills to extend economic opportunities to many more young women in eastern Uganda.

480 women applied to take UWADS’ initial baking course, demonstrating the untapped local demand for skills training. To date, 21 are participating in the course training.

Below is a brief snapshot of two women who are participating in the baking skills programs:

Benah is 34. She is married but currently supporting the family single handedly. Benah dropped out of school at a young age due to the cost of tuition fees.

She hopes to spare her own child a life without education or marketable skills. Her eldest son is in primary school, just a year away from from graduating to secondary education, which is very demanding and will require additional tuition cost and resources.

Beatrice is 17. She is married to an 18-year-old man. They have one child, an infant, but no source of independent income.

Like Benah, Beatrice hopes to provide her children better parental support, opportunities and education then she and her husband received.

Both Benah and Beatrice greatly appreciate the opportunity they have received from the baking skill programs, which has offered a ray of hope in much darkness and despair.

All 21 women, each with a story similar to Benah and Beatrice are completing their first lessons in financial management as well as receiving hands on training at two bakeries in the urban centres.

Soon, the entire group will be making bread and cakes on a small scale with the intention of scaling to a larger business.

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