Hi, I’m  Lydia, a 32 year old single mother of two kids,  and I reside in the local suburb of Jinja – Uganda. I have a strong desire for making shoes . Due to my desire for this vocation , I enrolled in a training for making shoes. It wasn’t an easy journey, but I had to do it, to be an independent woman, and a wonderful  mother to my kids. 

      I trained consistently, and focused on the target ahead. I didn’t allow myself to be swayed by the obstacles that came my way.  Later on, my hardwork paid off, and I started my first shoe project in 2018, right after I completed my training 

     Asides my desire for this vocation, my main objective is to be self employed, in order to generate income for my self, and also to secure the future of my kids. I want to give my kids the kind of life I didn’t get to enjoy, I want to see them do better and greater than me, by providing all the amenities they need. 

     So far, I’ve achieved a quarter of my goals, and I know and believe that I will achieve all. This project has made me a living testimony of God’s faithfulness, the income I generate from my shoe project facilitates the basic needs of my family. As a business woman, my major asset is “people”,  people with different characters and attitude. This has exposed me to new set of people  that are beneficial to my business. 

    I have encountered lots of challenges. Apparently, there is  no business without a challenge, in fact, life itself is full of challenges. This pandemic really hit my business hard, the price of materials used in making shoes went exceedingly high, and people in this region prefer cheap things. 

   Also, producing shoes in large quantities has always been difficult. I have no apprehentice or co worker. Making and producing shoes myself, takes  a long time to complete the orders I receive. 

   My future aspiration is to amass a larger labor force to enable completion of orders in time. Delivering orders to my clients on time, would definitely make them pleased with my business. Also, addition of other commodities asides shoes, to widen the variety of sales and production. Other commodities like wallets, table clothes and other handmade crafts. 

My name is Edith. In 2009 I started New Living Hope Training Center for the blind.  

Its objectives were simple to enable the blind to become self-reliant and preach the Gospel that the blind would know God.

Many blind people passed through this institution fifty-two (52) persons, and they are all self-employed.

I teach them how to make baskets. Mr. John Keltonic is a friend to Mama Diana. He introduced me to Compassionate Women Initiative (CWI) and what my students were making. She said it was a great fit. CWI bought some basket to take to the USA. 

As I partner with CWI, I will also be getting money for our school. This partnership will help us to buy materials and other needs for the students. 

Blind students have many challenges in Uganda. Thank you for buying our baskets to support the work.

I’m Kelvin, a gal trying to sustain myself and my family in the tailoring business. Growing up, I have always loved fashion, but I couldn’t learn more due to school fees. Tailoring is a vocation in which I have so much interest. 

In 2010, I took a bold step. I managed to save enough money to enroll in a training, to learn more about tailoring. I couldn’t go to school because of finances, but I made some sacrifices to secure money for my dream in tailoring. 

I’m proud to say that I am a certified tailor. I make clothes in different styles. Making men and women look good in their outfit is always my priority. 

Partnership is a very important factor in business. In 2017, I began to partner with Compassionate Women Initiative (CWI). I sewed many of their products like headbands, eco shopping bags, and card bags. 

Compassionate women initiative (CWI) pays me for my services. I can now provide basic needs and the children’s school fees. With this income, I was able to get myself an electric sewing machine that I’ve always wanted. 

In future, I plan to get a larger space of my own, where I can sell fabrics and other clothing materials and run my tailoring business as well. Currently, I run my business in a small part of my room, but I believe God will provide abundant capital to widen the scope of my business.  

My name is Zion, I am 34, and I have a wife and four children. 

I started making these unique, beautiful cane hanger project in 2017. I make them from a renewable source of cane in the swamps near Lake Victoria, where I live. One of the challenges of this renewable cane is the transport cost from the swamp to my workshop.

I want to employ some of the single mothers in my community who are unemployed. If I could expand my workshop, that would give more room to train these single mothers to make these beautiful hangers. It takes 3-4 weeks to finish a single hanger. 

CWI has helped me find a market for my hangers, paying me a living wage to have money for my family’s basic needs and school fees.

I can see God’s mighty provision for my family.

Thank you for buying my hangers. I hope you enjoy them in your home. When I think about you using them, it makes me smile.