EnterpriseHER Business Month; BUKASA GIRL CARE GROUP-Our Story

Christine Mabel

Aug 4

SLOWLY BY SLOWLY, AN EGG WILL WALK.
They say that a journey of a thousand miles begin with one step, however, the question is, is it easy to take that first step?

My name is Mutesi Sauya, 22 years and born of Uganda and currently living in Muyenga Bukasa. When you tell someone that you stay at Muyenga, someone will pull back a little because they know it is the place for only the affluent people in the city of Kampala but also exist a slum there on the other side.

I stay in Muyega but specifically Muyenga Bukasa, a place full of many poor and struggling people and worse more with the associated problems such as drug abuse, unemployment, teenage pregnancies, dropping out of school, hopelessness and many other and I witnessed all these as I would go to school everyday.

In my primary I had the chance to work with organisations such as Raising Voices, Plan International as a representative which created a good background for me in my childhood.
Gratitude also goes to my family especially my mother, my mentor, BGCG team and teachers who believe in me.They have created a good soldier.

Gandhi once said, Be the change that you want to see , I wanted to see change but I didn't know how to do this until I met my primary teacher who advised us to start a community based organisation. Through his advise , we decided to create Community Based Organization(CBO), that is Bukasa Girl Care Group which advocates for the needs of the girl child through Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and Entrepreneurship with a vision of "A community where every girl is embraced with unwavering support, respect and opportunities enabling her to unleash her true potential".

Bukasa Girl Care Group is a community based organisation and mainly spear headed by a group of young girls who are now growing up. One of the first step we did was get support from our own colleague at school. This was through soliciting money but most importantly tangible materials such as sanitary pads, soap and may other things that could help these young girls in the community. We operate from Muyenga Bukasa kijjwa zone, Kanyogoga, Namuwongo and the neighboring environments.

As you know, even the greatest soldiers in history like Napoleon Bonaparte or even Julius Ceaser were once ordinary soldier but who were mentored into their historical career. I started Bukasa Girl Care Group in 2019 when I was in form 4 in second term as a student at Kairos High School in Muyenga Bukasa, young and naive, but armed with a vision and determination and with other girls joining me, we became a team more so a family.

FIGHTING THE BATTLE

We have also manage to train up to more than 20 girls with skills on how to make charcoal briquettes, empowered community girls to start up small scale businesses by equipping them with a skill of paper bag making on the international day of a girl child in 2020, provided materials to 5 community girls who started up a paper bag business, sensitized and provided Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRHR) materials to up to 20 community girls of Kanyogoga.

We also managed to help a 16 year old married girl quite marriage and got back to her parents, donated soap and sanitary towels to 30 community girls during the pandemic in 2020 and also organized mentorship programe for members of BGCG.
Participated in the dress Namuwongo Campaign organized by our partners of Urban Rankings Uganda.

We have also managed to give emotional and psychological support such as counselling and guidance through coordinating with expert well wishers. This has really changed the mind of some teenage mother who felt like an outcast to go back to school to continue from where they had stopped.

We get our support by use of voluntary services from the community and members of BGCG, who donate savings from their pocket money since they are students who are still dependant on their family; Capacity building of a girls group in the community as well as linkages and collaborations with various stake holders, health workers and NGOs like Amariatek Life Coaching found in Lira district and Urban Rankings Uganda.

This project has also been pushed forward by the mainstream media such NTV Uganda, Spark TV who have called us for shows to air out our opinion and objectives which has helped us to be exposed many well wisher who have supported us tremendously.

However, we have also faced challenges along our journey, for instance, during the registration of the organisation. It wasn't easy because of the lack of money and the bureaucracy involved. This was in 2021.

To make it worse, we were still in school and balancing studies and the project was really hectic but as soldiers, we had to endure the situations and finish what we started and all this thanks goes to God Almighty and all the well wishers and supporters.

THE FUTURE
We have a future plan of establishing a training center in the community where girls can gather and attain skills, establish a community library where community girls can access learning materials and to be in position to provide school fees and sponsorship to the under privileged community girls and offer financial support to the small scale businesses so as to minimize unemployment levels amongst girls in our community.

Therefore we need support from Linkages and collaborations with developed partners, financial support for projects implementation and community based pillars enhancement.
Partnerships with international institutions e.g universities and volunteer deployment organizations to enable the organization receive and host skilled volunteers to help empower the community.
Recommendation to donors and multilateral funding institutions for project financial support.

We therefore believe that every girl deserves a second chance and we can only do this through empowering them and raising their voices.

Story by

Sauyah Mutesi

founder and team leader

Bukasa Girl Care group