Women in Africa achieve self-reliance and dignity through empowerment and economic activity, fellowships that strengthen the socio-economic transformation of women, and networking to inspire new initiatives for orphans and vulnerable children in Uganda.

The women from rural areas discuss how painful it is for them to send their children to school each day with only the meal in their bellies and no shoes on their feet. Such women cannot receive loans from other financial institutions or grantors – such as an employee. These people live on less than $1 a day. It is not necessarily that the poor do not want to do something to improve their lives. Economic and cultural structures have caused them to develop a mindset of low self-esteem and dignity. Profit-motivated financial institutions are less inclined to help the poor women because the poor lack collateral as well as the experience of handling loans.

The women need to be encouraged to participate in income-generating projects and businesses as a means of boosting self-employment among them and to see these ladies grow their entrepreneurial skills so that they can be successful business people and transfer their skills to their families, including their eventual offspring.