Betty runs her Income Generating Activity (IGA) at a local market.
During the Lord’s Resistance Army conflict, Ajok Betty’s entire family was displaced from their ancestral land, and she never finished her primary education. At the time she joined Mend, our social enterprise, Betty was struggling to pay school fees and feed her family, and her health was suffering.
By joining Mend, Betty was able to learn new tailoring skills, earn an income by making these bags and receive financial management training. She also participated in trainings for adult literacy, land rights, health issues, and how to run an Income Generating Activity (IGA).
Betty has used the information from those trainings to improve her life and the lives of her family members. She’s invested her money to make bricks and build a 6-room house for her family. Earlier this year she started her own tailoring business at a local market on the weekends. She sews children’s dresses, makes curtains and mends clothing. She’s also taken the initiative to learn hairdressing from the woman who runs the salon next to her stall, earning extra income from doing hair.
Ajok Betty has a lot of responsibility, and she manages it all with a smile. She feeds the family, pays school fees for her two children as well as her younger brother and sister, pays for any medical bills and provides the entire family with accommodation. After taking literacy courses at Mend, Betty is able help her children with some of their homework.
“I know how to read my children’s names,” Betty said. “I can identify books that belong to each of them by reading their names without a problem.”
She may have missed many opportunities for educational development because of the LRA conflict, but Betty is seizing the opportunities available at Mend to take back control over her life and the lives of her family.
She plans to continue taking the literacy courses at Mend and devote more time to growing her small business.
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