Moreen Hamonye, an Ugandan women entrepreneur, is always grateful for her mother. Moreen’s family wasn’t wealthy. Her father worked hard to keep food on the table, but it still wasn’t enough for everything-especially Moreen’s school fees.

Moreen’s mother had supported her with everything she had. Despite not being educated and lacking work experience, Moreen’s mother provided financial and emotional support by working different jobs. Being brought up by such an inspiring figure, it only made sense for her to work for women’s rights and empowerment in Uganda.

“My mom was an amazing person. She taught me just how important achieving self-reliance is for Ugandan women. Had she not worked so hard for my education, I would’ve had to drop out of school. In fact, almost 75% of Ugandan female students quit school due to financial hardships.”

Moreen recalled her friends. As time passed by, her friends started to miss classes one by one, until eventually left school completely. When she later heard that they were married and had many kids, Moreen felt sorry for them.

출처: UNICEF Uganda

“Uganda is characterized by its high fertility rate. Most of this is taken up by poor rural women, especially underaged girls. Poverty forces families to get their daughters married early, and the children from these premature marriages are deprived of education due to poverty. This is creating a negative cycle of early marriages in Uganda.”

Moreen realized that the thing that chains women to poverty is lack of opportunity and skills, and thought that the only way to free them was by income. Then she again thought of her mother. Remembering how her mother had baked bread and sold them at the market, Moreen started her own bakery, UWADS in order to hire and teach women in need. 

“Bread is a necessity product that is in demand every day. This makes it a reliable trade for women. Baking is also an ideal skill for women, because it is easy for them to learn and eventually allows them to sell baked goods themselves. The word empowerment is actually nothing more complicated than providing easily accessible jobs.”

UWADS had started off small, with 8 women baking bread. Now it has grown to be a shelter for 30 women, all joined together to change lives. Moreen wishes to expand to other regions in Uganda in order for UWADS to become a guideline for more Ugandan women. Join Moreen and her mission!