Dear Friends,
The last few months have been difficult in Northern Uganda. Lack of rain meant that many people’s harvest failed and led to a 3 month long hunger period. We saw many young children die during this time. The good news is that people are now harvesting again, and the situation looks promising. The women who participate in our micro-financing and savings program were able to use their funds to help get through this period, a good indication that our programming is working. As the security situation is now fairly stable many are moving out of camps and back to their original homesteads. While this movement is good as it means greater access to land for farming, it has brought a new set of challenges as most of our women are widows or young women living on their own who do not have the skills or labor to build their own homes. We are also seeing increased levels of malaria and other preventable health issues.
The documentary made by Chris Jenkins on CAFWA’s work in Northern Uganda is now ready to be viewed! We are profoundly grateful to Chris for all the effort he has put into this. We also have short video clips on the CAFWA website, explaining the different areas of our work. I encourage you to take a look!
Our programming is expanding and we now work with over 1300 women. We continue to seek out the most vulnerable people in the communities where we operate, and in the last few months we have added 18 new groups, or 420 women and men. Some of the new groups include women and men who are disabled, child mothers, widows, as well as people living with tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS.
 Our literacy work continues to be a huge success: we now have 3 centers, and hope to expand to 10 during 2010. The centers give people access to education in areas where there is no adult education. This year over 60 people sat in the national exams. Due to the hunger period many people were not able to attend on a regular basis so we hope those people will take the exams next year. It is a joy to see how proud the women are when they no longer sign documents with a thumb print but are able to write their own names.
In this season of giving we hope you remember CAFWA. Give your friends and relatives a gift that will change lives for the better. Gifts will be explained by a personalized card which can be sent to you or your honorees.
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