Faces from Lake Victoria shores

by R.Kagumire, posted in Uncategorized

Last weekend I paid a visit to Lwangosia village in new formed district of Namaigo. There Isis-WICCE supports a group of grassroots women who carry out paralegal services often intervening in cases of land rights of widows and orphans, rights of people living with HIV to live in a stigma free community. It was a day’s meeting and I visited the near by Mutumba sub-county. From the shore I could see the islands, that lie in Kenya. This is a place where crocodiles are one of the top killers. It’s a place well placed for a fishing industry but the no infrastructure exists. Fishermen here have to transport their catch to Busia.

HIV/AIDS is high in fishing communities and Lwangosia is no exception. Access to clean water is a problem too. I captured some faces I found in about 12 hrs I spent.

Girls carry water jerrycans on a bicycle. Access to water is big challenge in Lwangosia
Scovia, from Lwangosia women's group. She's a widow. Her husband died of HIV and her in-laws took over her land soon after her husband's death. For years she lived on a small piece of land struggling to raise her children. She never considered the actions of her in-laws as a violation until she got a training in the rights of women, she went back and claimed the land. Now she has access and she farms to get money for her children's school fees.
I met this Mzee in Mutumba. He owned a huge chunk of land like a big hill. He gave big part of it to different faiths to construct their places of worship with enough excess to build on development projects. In a world consumed by increasing religious intolerance, such acts are rare and finding such an understanding soul lifts ma spirits.
Beautiful girl in Mutumba
These kids go to St. Paul Lubango primary school. The school has 7 classrooms but has only 5 teachers. That's Uganda's free education.
A girl carries her brother at the meeting.
Beauties.
This was my last picture out of Lubango. A teacher at Lubango and her 10 year old daughter who has a speech impairment. She could speak then until she was 4 years. Then she had malaria was hospitalised, she lost her speech, the mother doesn't know why this happened. She's a twin and her twin sister is doing well in school. It's difficult to be a teacher and you can't teach your own child. Education for children with disabilities is rare. You have to take a child hundreds of miles away from family. There's a school far away but she has to pay for a sack of beans and maize flour for child to be admitted. This is because some parents would go and dump such children at the school and never come back. She can't find all that money.

Published by R.Kagumire

Bushenyi roots. editor, public speaker, feminist writer, award-winning blogger and socio-political analyst. Words seen in international media like The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Quartz and Mundo Negro. Expertise in new media, social justice, migration, gender, peace and security issues. Was honored with the 2018 Anna Guèye Award for her work on digital democracy, justice and equality by Africtivistes. The World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders under the age of 40. I studied Mass Communication at Makerere University, short courses on Non-violent conflict at Tufts University, Global Leadership and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and MA in Media, Peace and Conflict Studies from the University for Peace. Outside Uganda, I have lived in Costa Rica, Switzerland and a bit in Ethiopia.

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