"We have a collective vision to fulfil our individual dreams" - Teddy explains how she and her friends work together to change the lives of their families.

“There are 24 women members of our savings groups. We are all guardians of orphaned children that are in awamu's education scheme.

“We had the idea that we would make sure that at the end of the year we had enough money to look after our children and buy them clothes, food or pay school fees.

“The minimum we save is 2000 Ugandan shilling (0.50p) every two weeks and then we also put away an extra minimum of 1000 ugx (0.25p) away per child.

“We  like to say that we have a collective vision to fulfil our individual dreams.

“When we save and collect enough we give out loans to members - if you borrow you pay back the loan over three to four months with 1% interest. We write applications to present to the groups and then decide collectively who takes it that month.

“We sometime use the interest for emergency help - say if someone has to take in a new orphaned child, we will try to give them a little extra to help with feeding .

“How successful the businesses are depends on how active the women is and we are very careful about how we are going to invest before the loan is agreed upon.

“I borrowed 200,000 (£50) and I brought a jerry can of cooking oil, a sack of Irish potatoes and fresh fish from the market for frying….I make fish and chips!

“In a one day I can now make 15,000 (£3.75) profit. I make food at home my house is on a main road and the area if full of students that love fish and chips

“I offer fish in different sizes so I can cater for all budgets.

“Before I started this business we used to go to bed hungry at night because we had no food for dinner. Now we can have three meals a and I am still able to make savings.

“I save at home and I save as part of the group. I save 6,000 ugx (£1.50) a day.

“There is me alone with six children in my family, four are mine and two I foster because they were orphaned but we make them as part of our family now. My aim is to buy a plot of land so I can build a small place for us all.

 

With your support we have already given over 100 women like Teddy training in the vital skills they need to start their own business. But sometimes life in the slums has a way of keeping you down and you need an extra hand to get you off the ground - can you help a mum start a business and rebuild the life of her family?

Click here to give a donation to help a women start her business and regain control over their life: