A Meeting with the ACDA Women's association

In addition to conducting HIV/AIDS prevention activities in the IDP camps in the area, we have the general task of supporting the activities of the Agoro Community Development Association (ACDA). ACDA is the organization that Working to Empower is partnering with in northern Uganda.

One of the projects that ACDA has is a women's group. The women's group is an association of 28 women, most of whom are widows who try support each other and try to come up with income generation projects. Their most (or only) successful project has been making beads out of paper and then sending them to the US or Canada to be sold.

I had the extremely enjoyable task of meeting with the women's group and writing an article about them to assist in the selling of beads in Canada. Here are some pictures from that day.


I love this picture. The women are sort-of shy and if they know they are going to be in the picture they don't smile. (Or they give a half-smile with no teeth showing). However, they are so happy they smile all the time when you are not taking a picture. They can be telling you about how their husband died and they were homeless and their children were hungry, and they will still be smiling. So, this picture is really nice because you get to see a REAL smile. In the foreground is a string of beads that are almost finished.


This is Helen, she was a really nice and amazing woman. After her husband was killed she was inherited as the third wife of her husband's relative. Then after giving birth to her 7th child she got cancer in her uterus and couldn't have anymore children. So her husband left her and she had to move in (with all her children) to her parent's house. Then her father died leaving her with no support. Then she moved to Kitgum and was homeless... you get the idea. Anyway, she now works with the women's group and makes beads to sell in Canada and the US.

Here is an up close shot of a strand of beads.


Here I am interviewing the women's group. Beatrice, the woman sitting next to me is translating for me. (The women only speak Luo, the local language). The women we surprisingly open and so nice.

They still need more people to sell beads for them in Canada and the US. If this is something you might be willing to do let me know. :)