Thursday

A beautiful morning, so I decide to walk into town for our meeting with Harris Nambutebi (no I did not know Harris could be a girl’s name either) the local Amplify Change Project Manager. She is based in Mukono, which is at least an hour away by minivan taxi, Christine and mercy were impressively on time. Harris was a little late, so we sat outside the Source Cafe (iconic tourist cafe) on Main Street and had some breakfast. Christine tells me that they visited a villiage in Iganga to do some training on sanitary pads, they noticed that there was no secure water source and were working with the community to build a well. I was impressed that they had departed from the women’s work to address this basic need.

Harris was impressive, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and very happy to share information, this is unusual in Uganda as many charities feel they are competing and are very guarded about their funding. They are running three main programmes; ending child marriages in rural communities, sexual and reproductive health in schools, ending sexual violence in schools (funded mostly by USAid). They have a team of 14+ and work in many of the rural communities around Mukono.Harris gives use good feedback on the reusable sanitary pads. There is a high quality locally made reusable product called Afripad, the manufacturing is subsidised with grant funding, so they are quite cheap. MVA reusable pads are made by local self help groups using materials available at local markets.

MVA have been also been trying to run a disposable pad production business to make a surplus, which may not be realistic. Harris suggests we should consider wider benefits like employment of disadvantaged women.
Harris has a lot to share and we talk for two hours, the MVA youth programme is just two people part time. The Amplify Change programmes are non religious, the MVA work has a Christian Foundation. Given that 80% of Ugandans are Christian, there are opportuntities here, but also tensions around some of the teaching.
As we walk back to the bus stop, I feel frustrated that MVA are not able to do more when there is so much need. But the initiative and drive must come from within the Ugandan MVA team, not from us in the UK. But one step at a time, we will have to wait till the time is right