Women Leaders Training

This morning the MUBS Leadership Centre started a women's leaders training programme that has attracted participants from different organizations. One of the things that MUBS has done is to promote empowering of women. Knowing that being the majority of people, if they are not empowered there is a slow and uneven development especially of the poor people in the world. We have been socialized to believe certain things about ourselves both as men and women. For this reason men tend to disadvantage women which lead to lesser development. Social exclusion of women starts right from our parent's home as they give different roles to different children; it goes to schools, workplaces and world at large. All this is disadvantaging and subordinating women to men. There is need for empowerment of women but we need to be careful on what we mean by empowerment. For instance, there are cultural aspects of respects of parents and all people which are part of African culture. It would be unfortunate if in the name of social inclusion we tampered with such cultures. We should remember 20% of our population in Uganda is in the rural areas with the traditional values that have subordinated women to men. How you transform these, is important. Women empowerment is done through legislation, affirmative action, feminism and sensitization but most important is building family values that encourage women inclusion in all spheres of life subject to biological differences that they face.

Research on Markets in Kampala, Uganda

Recently an article appeared in the New Vision as one of the series on Uganda at 50 years of Independence. In that article, they explained the evolution of trade in Uganda and how Africans were kept away from trade and left to be peasant farmers because they were poor and could not build shops a phenomenon that continues to date. Africans were put into markets to sell agricultural products, local crafts and metal products produced by local smiths. Up to the early 1980's, markets were in certain fixed places and it was not easy to start a market without the authority of local markets. Due to the increasing population, markets have sprung up everywhere in the country. Markets today are places today where the poor Africans go to start their businesses; it is still a perpetuation of what existed then unfortunately. At the MUBS Entrepreneurship Centre a research is being done on markets in Uganda trying to establish why they develop, who sells in them, what they sell and why they are spread everywhere. Owino is the largest market in the country with over 30,000 vendors, the majority of which are women. What is Uganda's business model? Why can't majority of Ugandans establish fixed shops? These are interesting questions for researchers like us.

A case of Failure of family Values and Family Leadership

In Summary

Case. Prossy wants court to compel her fiancé John to pay her Shs20 million for his alleged failure to marry her.

When Prossy introduced John to her parents in Vanvin Village in 2010 as her fiancé, she was sure a wedding would follow shortly to cement their relationship.

However, two years later and without a wedding ring, Prossy has decided to seek legal recourse, dragging her fiancé to court for allegedly failing to wed her.

In what many in Peru have described as a “strange” case, Prossy, a resident of Costa in the municipality, says John, who is the National Agricultural Advisory Services, (Naads) coordinator for Ganka Sub-county in Chez District, should pay for failing to marry her.

In the suit, Prossy says she went an extra mile to facilitate their introduction ceremony and make it “colourful” with a Shs2 million cash injection—and it is just proper that her fiancé—who “had a small income” then, reciprocates a good turn.

In her submission to the Brazy Chief Magistrate, Prossy laments that Saturday December 17, 2011, should have been her lucky day—when she should have walked down the aisle with her heartthrob.

Instead, Prossy says, she nearly dropped dead when Pastor Fred of Brazy Deliverance Church, who was to preside over the function, told her John had halted the wedding “until further notice”.

Prossy told court her misery is further compounded by the fact that her house in Dirdi in Brazy town is where the couple had co-habited in “tough” times and that she had contributed Shs2 million to help her fiancé get a job.

Prossy’s lawyer told court: “Since then my client has suffered mental anguish and torture, lost chances to marry and suffered injured feelings and shame in community.”

The lawyer says court should compel John to pay Prossy Shs20 million in costs and general damages, noting that the former’s conduct was “unlawful” and tantamounts to “breach of promise”.

John in his defence, however, states that he is still in love with Prossy and is surprised by the suit.
Chief magistrate Cathy Slyvia has given the pair up to November 19 to organise a wedding or have the case resume.