There is hope at the end of the tunnel;Nagawa's life story……

By Hellen Nyamweru: Nagawa is a young single mother ,a frail woman whose beauty hides behind her somewhat tired eyes.She calls herself a 'veteran' of one of the biggest slum of Kampala,having practically lived here all her life.She was born and raised here in Kisenyi III.Born in a polygamous family,Nagawa had to drop out of school at age 15 after the untimely demise of her father,the sole bread-winner of the large family.There were no finances for the family leave alone continue paying for her school fees.Soon after Nagawa was whisked into marriage,herself barely an adult at the age of 15.Marital bliss was short-lived as Nagawa's husband passed away 4 years into the marriage making her a widow at the age of 19 with two children in tow,a boy and a girl.
Life became unbearable because she had no job having not completed school yet had to take care of two children.She started doing manual jobs at Owino market,the biggest market in Kampala city,she would wait on tables and serve food but the money could not sustain her and her children.Technically things went from bad to worse because she had to pay rent,provide food,settle medical bills,clothe herself and children all on her own.
She was always late in paying rent,many are the times she would get threat evictions,different padlocks on her door and even actual evictions late in the night at a time she had no clue on where to go or to turn to.She moved from one rent holding to the another in the slum most in very bad condition.The discomfort and inadequacy of their temporary accommodation notwithstanding,the stormy life was not scarring the children both emotionally and physically because of the loss of their father and the constant moving from one house to the next.Nagawa decided to relocate to the village.Life was not any easier and she decided to come back to Kampala in 2005.

She started by doing manual jobs yet again,got some income to start a second hand clothe business.In 2009,Nagawa joined the Uganda Slum Dwellers Federation because of the good stories she would hear about the federation as well as witness.The Kisenyi sanitation unit now towering over Kisenyi slum is a clear evidence of joint slum dwellers efforts.The sanitation unit provides clean water at a reduced cost to the slum residents.It also provides toilet and bathroom facilities that are well maintained by federation members.It also provides shelter to a number of beneficiaries.
On further interaction,Nagawa learnt the members save about UGX 100 which they let accumulate and can withdraw on convinience,having accumulated to meaningful sum.
At the moment,Nagawa stays in a rent holding which she  can afford.She has since been able to bring her children back to Kampala and they have been tremendous company for the young widow.She takes them to school which she solely pay from her savings with the federation.She saves for three months or so and then withdraws to pay the schoolfees.She also saves with 'Suubi'',the Urban Poor Fund which is a permanent kind of saving.Funds remitted are  not withdrawn,rather they earn interest for bigger developmental projects such as the construction of houses,looking forward to a secure new home for herself someday.
Since she joined the federation,her saving culture has greatly improved and she has been able to accomplish a lot aside from educating her children.Her second hand clothing business is running successfully.

Nagawa is slowly forming new attachments,getting to know many federation members,she has been given responsibility as a collector for the daily savings.Single motherhood is accompanied with vigorous strife  for survival and prosperity but Nagawa hope to beat the odds and provide a life for her two children.She has deftly adapted to the circumstances that surround her and a positive attitude toward life is what she carries with her nowadays.In her own words Nagawa says ''Life has tested me many times before but i will work with the slum dwellers to achieve many of my dream''.With a woman who has been short-changed by life on so many occasion,one cannot help but admire Nagawa.There is a position for Nagawa to start rebuilding her universe and that of her two little children with the aegis of Uganda Slum Dwellers Federation.Beyond the litany of social problems that blight the Kisenyi neighborhood,there is a woman with hope and dreams to achieve.

Mapping kicks off..........

By Hellen Nyamweru:Last week saw the commencement of slum mapping in two cities of Uganda i.e. Mbale and Jinja aimed at collecting spatial data for effective and inclusive planning of the cities.Mapping is aimed at promoting land management and tenure tools for poverty alleviation.Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) mapping,the activity is aimed at producing reliable numbers about slum populations to further help in the effective planning of our cities and avoid problems of urban decay.This comes after slum enumerations in which social data from slum areas was collected.The social data done collected present information on village layout,population size,land and structure ownership patterns,infrastructure,ethnolinguistic groups,health patterns and others.

The slums we have today are in bad shape ,simple shacks made of flimsy structures of cardboard,mud and even polythene bags.Unable to find proper housing,slum dwellers build their structures on empty government land or private land which makes them vulnerable to multiple evictions.Overcrowding and congestion with rubbish littering all over makes slums ineligible for basic services most especially because city authorities fail to recognize them.They are excluded from the wider city budgets in many cases.

Mapping will therefore formally recognize  slum dwellers and slums in general because their structures  will  physically be seen on the maps in their respective cities.This will in turn give them a voice to lobby and negotiate for the basic services that lack in the slums yet availed to their neighbours dwelling in the well planned areas of the cities.
In most cases,monitoring issues in the slums is a vexed subject and therefore slum dwellers are left  to face many of the problems affecting them alone.It is their collective effort that will help them pull out of the dire straits The mapping exercise has been  well received by the slum dwellers in both cities,Jinja and Mbale and the exercise is expected to spread to the rest of the cities i.e Kabale,Arua and Mbarara.
A one-week break has since been taken by both the  mapping teams within the federation and the community support officers from ACTogether  to evaluate the situation in the field,come up with area boundaries of more slums and get ready for more work in the cities.We've established a good start and we pray for a good ending too!!