Photo of the week: women’s empowerment

Before Leya Chede, 47, joined ActionAid’s adult literacy Reflect program, she would have been too shy to even meet a stranger coming to her house. Now she is an elected local councillor, representing women’s issues in the local government in the Palisa district in Kampala, Uganda.

Leya Chede photographed at her turkey rearing house with some goats.

The Reflect program in Uganda seeks to promote and protect the rights of those people who are marginalised and consequently are suffering poverty and its effects. In Uganda, Reflect has been used as a creative approach to stimulate social changes through long and short term anti poverty campaigns.

Literacy skills form the basis of the Reflect program, which is then used to educate its participants about food preservation and nutrition, health controls and measures for protection against HIV. It also empowered participants to influence the local government decision-making processes.

For example, together with other women, Leya identified a lack of good quality seed as a major obstacle to overcoming hunger and poverty in their community. With ActionAid’s support, the BUREDO Seed Bank was established.

This has given members resilience against the changes in climate that they are experiencing. Leya says: “At least we are able to harvest something because we were able to get better seed. We have all been affected by the drought but we are a bit better off.”

Leya had also joined an ActionAid community based farming group and was able to buy goats and turkeys which she now rears.