Support Women in Uganda to flee Domestic Violence

In the recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic with its related restrictions forced us to suspend field activities that required staff to engage with the communities and large groups of people. More emphasis remained on sustaining daily operations and provide counseling, referral and mediation support to women and girls in need.  On a daily basis, our counselors continued to receive and interact with women who needed support in managing family and relationship related conflicts.

During the lock down periods, the government health sector invested more efforts in the campaign to end the COVID-19 pandemic at the expenses of other essential health services including maternal health care, therefore, VOWU’s Mother Care Medical Centre  spend some time in ensuring that communities in particular women have access to services as family planning services, cervical cancer screening, breast cancer screening, HPV for young girls, HIV counseling and testing, diagnosis and treatment of STIs and UTIs and general health education.

This is the testimony of one of the beneficiaries of these services. “I heard an announcement when I was still sleeping and got so excited about it that I immediately rushed to Voice of Women Uganda offices and I was the very first to arrive! I had a chance to get diagnosed for various diseases and I am very grateful for this opportunity.  I discovered that I have an infection and I am so thankful I have already received medication to continue the treatment. I am impressed with the service; the health workers are very friendly and have answered all my questions. I have also learned about VOWU and the good work they do for women. I also need assistance about my difficult family situation and I am happy to learn that they are willing to help me. I am very glad to come back soon for counseling!”

Also, we are very proud of our ongoing creative learning project where survivors of violence have been trained in vocational handcraft: to empower them with skills, knowledge and reliable income for their households through the proceeds realized from this project.So far, our vocational training helped 16 vulnerable women to learn how to manufacture a leather shoe and on how to market their products. We are planning to welcome more women and to organize additional courses in other vocational skills.

This is the testimony of Donah Neumbe, one of the trainees at VOWU’s Creative Learning Centre: "Like any other student on the first day of school, I imagined that it was a tedious procedure to make a shoe, which turned out not to be the case as the teacher demonstrated with patience and explained all the steps taken as we also put our hands on. This training has helped me fulfill my dream of learning how to make shoes. This has built my self-esteem and made me discover the craft woman in me."

We wish to express our deep gratitude to GlobalGiving and all our generous donors for supporting such initiatives intended to build women’s self-reliance and give hope and support to women victims of violence.

Thank you for being part of our community. Without you, none of it is possible.