Will you help Fatuma set up her business?

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?

With your support we have already given over 100 women training in the vital skills they need to start their own business. We now have successful fish and chip shops, bakers, mat makers, mushroom growers and tailors to name just a few.

But sometimes life in the slums have a way of keeping you down - your parents pass away and you find yourself the sole provider for your siblings; you're struck down by illness; floods wash away your home leaving you destitute and struggling to feed your family.

This is what happened to Fatuma's family in November last year, when heavy rains caused open drains to swell. Water washed through their home, bringing down the walls narrowly missing the children as they slept.

The filthy water washed away their few possessions and contaminated everything else. They were left with nothing and nowhere to go.

The situation seemed extra heart breaking to me, as just a few days before, Fatuma had been excitedly telling me how their lives had started to move on since the training she received from us.

As you can see in this video, she had taken to tailoring with a passion and had been using the machines in the office to train other women and take in some small tailoring work.

She became part of a savings and credit group and was for the first time in her life, saving money.

Her dream was to have her own sewing machine, there is great demand for tailoring services from her neighbours and students at the nearby university. She would be able to start earning decent money and build a better life for her children Winnie, Akram & Esther.

So this is the reason for our campaign today, we want to start a fund that will allow us to offer small loans to mums like Fatuma. Giving them a helping hand to start their business and regain control over their lives.

A marvellous idea I hear you say, where do I sign up? but wait, it doesn't stop there...because by helping a mum today you will in turn enable the children we work with to gain skills that will help them have a better life too.

How does it work?

We are aiming to raise £3,400 to start our fund - this has the potential to reach approx. 30 women. We'll listen to their business plan and the scale of the loan will depend on the business idea, for example, it would take just £85 for Fatuma to buy her own sewing machine and all the materials she needs to get her own tailoring business started.

She'll pay back the loan with 1% interest and, in turn, she'll help the next generation because we'll use what she pays back to create a fund that will help to pay for the children we work with to receive skills and enterprise training in the holidays too.

In a country where young people are disproportionately affected by unemployment (80% of 15-24 year) they are going to need all the skills they can along side their formal education to earn their own living in the future.

Will you help mums like Fatuma by giving them a helping hand to start a business and change their families lives forever?

How you can help

1. Give £85 (or whatever you can afford) to help a mum like Fatuma  build a sustainable future for herself and her family - just £85 Fatuma could buy her own sewing machine and the materials  she needs to get her own tailoring business started.

Donations of £85 and over will receive a small but very special handmade gift from one of the women you'll be helping once she gets business off the ground.

2. Give a donation as a gift to your mum this Mothers Day and we'll send them a card with your love explaining how your gift has helped to support a mum in Kampala - changing the life of her 
whole family.

3. Hold a craft event with your friends and raise £85 pounds - knowing that everything your raised will be helping a mum use similar skills to change her families life.

Do get in touch if you'd like other ideas of how to help or you have your own ideas to share!

Thank you

Emma, Steve, Kerry, Fatuma and everyone at awamu x