Milka’s home is in the village over an hour from the town center of Gulu. The land is green and hilly, with livestock grazing along the side of the rust red road. Milka remembers enjoying her childhood playing outside and swimming with her friends in a river near her home.
Then the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) conflict in northern Uganda made their village too dangerous, and they were forced to live in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp. In the IDP camp they didn’t have a garden, food was scarce and they had to depend on foreign aid.
“Some of my childhood peers did not make it back to the village,” Milka says. “Some were abducted and others killed during the war. Gun shots was the order of the day.”
Losses were heavy, and in the years of peace since the LRA were forced out of Uganda in 2006, Milka has been working hard to rebuild her life. Her tailoring skills are improving at Mend, where she is also receiving training on how to run her own business.
Arriving at her childhood home, Milka is enthusiastically greeted by her relatives. Milka has used some of her savings from Mend to purchase goats, which her uncle cares for in the village.
“It’s easy to raise goats,” Milka explains why she chose this project. “It’s self-managed and not so demanding in terms of time.”
She initially purchased three goats last year, and now has a small herd of 13 goats. Milka is raising them to sell when her oldest daughter starts secondary school in three years. By planning ahead, she hopes to be able to afford school fees for all three of her children.
Through trainings organized at Mend, women who were affected by the LRA conflict are learning how to improve their lives by launching Income Generating Activities (IGA). In 2012, 55% of the seamstresses at Mend were operating an IGA, while 82% have plans to start one in the future.
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