The Mother Centre
Hungry Minds Educational Society (HUMES) formed in response to requests from rural Ugandans living in extreme poverty for help with their educational needs. Adult learners who had been the beneficiaries of a donor funded literacy project, asked the founders to deliver curriculum that addressed their needs to improve their lifestyles. Their idea was to create a model village that would demonstrate innovative solutions to everyday needs.
Mother Centre Site
HUMES felt that if activities were conducted at a training centre, interventions and knowledge could remain there, so that anyone seeking solutions at any point in the future could walk through a library of ideas and request training to reproduce the interventions they saw there. No one group would benefit from activities. By creating a model village at the Mother Centre we could reach all interested learners, regardless of where they lived with technologies such as rain water collection, solar ovens, earthbag construction, animal husbandry projects and such.
HUMES’ first need was to acquire land on which to build the Mother Centre. The Church of Uganda offered us permanent ‘right of use’ to 5 acres at Kisowera, 30 km east of Kampala. Kisowera community members came together in a series of meetings to vision, discuss and prioritize how to manage and develop this land into the Mother Centre.
Methodology
The founders felt that if this project was to be successful, they needed to integrate into the community by living and working there and turn over ownership of HUMES to those it aimed to benefit. Our idea was to create a HUMES-community partnership, belonging to and directed by members. We first came together as a community to create a vision of how we would like to improve our lifestyles. We prioritized our needs, problem solved solutions and then planned how to implement ideas.
As so often happens when a community is given the opportunity to freely express their most urgent needs, Kisowera community members had different perceptions of what their priorities were. While all agreed that a mother centre would benefit them, clean water, school fees and income generating projects were seen to be more pressing.
HUMES responded to these requests for support and in doing so, built a level of trust amongst members. By integrating into the Kisowera community, HUMES became privy to issues that residents were grappling with and we were able to better understand their needs and deliver services, tailored to address their concerns.
The JoyKare Centre
One concern that was discussed with us over and over was that of female domestic violence. Beating of women is culturally acceptable in Uganda and up to 90% of the population believes it is justifiable in some circumstances. Because of that, there is little to no support for those who wish to learn to prevent outbursts, improve relationships or even leave violent home environments to seek safe shelter. Kisowera community members often shared their stories of domestic problems with us, asking if we could assist them.
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Most Ugandan women have no say in affairs relating to their home life. Upwards of 78% have experienced some form of domestic violence and many have lost their lives. Often women do not attend community meetings, speak out, take up leadership positions or otherwise improve themselves because they are threatened by their partners. There are no laws in place aimed at protecting victims or punishing perpetrators.
Women who have been traumatized by problems at home are unlikely to consider leaving. There is no money available to them to start over, no shelters to run to, no support groups, family members are usually unsympathetic, and there are always children whose well being needs to be considered.
Women are reluctant to file a complaint for fear of retaliation, embarrassment, ignorance of the law or not knowing where to report abuse. In rural areas like Kisowera, cases of domestic violence are often handled within the community, rather than by the police. Often parish leaders are initially brought in to settle disputes between couples and this almost always means women are returned home to their partners. More serious cases are passed on to sub-county leaders or the district gender officer, who may recommend that the police are informed.
HUMES has responded by opening the JoyKare Centre. Women can go there to get information and make decisions in a supportive environment. There, our current capacity allows us to help women process what they have been through and teach them some strategies to rebuild or improve their relationships.
Currently the JoyKare Centre runs group counselling sessions once a week and private sessions by request. Women have produced an awareness play and have taken it to the streets to inform other rural community members about domestic violence issues in Uganda and the support available to them at the JoyKare Centre.