Gender equality within Build an Income
Key Issues
We believe that income opportunities should be equally available to men and women.
In the rural areas of Uganda and Kenya it is often the women who face the greatest burden of work, given their traditional responsibilities for growing much of the food and caring for the sick and dying. In many cases they are also the sole breadwinner of the family because of the HIV epidemic.
Because of the crippling poverty widespread throughout the rural districts of rural Africa, these women are denied the opportunity to save their hard earned income to invest in farming or to put their entrepreneurial ideas into action. Without an income they are also unable to send their children to school, thereby perpetuating the cycle of subsistence living and financial insecurity that has afflicted the rural poor for so long.
What We Do
Our income generating projects have been particularly popular with the women in the community. They account for more than 70% of our Village Savings and Loans Association scheme members for example. Similarly, the Buliisa Orphans Project is providing a lifeline to the women of all ages afflicted with HIV/AIDS, as well as to the mothers and grandmothers who have been left as the sole guardians of their families due to the epidemic.
In the short term the projects are enabling families to meet immediate needs, allowing children, especially girls, to attend school. In the long term they provide the resources families need to move away from subsistence agriculture and invest in income generating activities and their families' futures. Significantly, women also get a greater say in how the money is spent in the household.
