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NAWOU, The National Association of Women's Organizations in Uganda, is a non-governmental organization representing over 1000 women's groups in Uganda. The goals of the organization are: To coordinate networking between women's groups; To bring women together to deal with issues of common concern; To respond to requests for technical assistance to help women achieve their professional goals; To make resources available which will help women achieve their goals, and; To lobby the government and local organizations on issues affecting women.
For a rural Ugandan woman, Joyce Nayiga is very outspoken. She was chosen by a US company to go to the States for a year to demonstrate her art of basket weaving in what are called 'Bushgardens.' This meant leaving her children with her husband, and as she said, "In Uganda we don't just have a couple of children, but a whole tribe!" However, such opportunities do not come often to a Ugandan family so her husband was happy to let her go.
"My impression in Uganda is that women's rights are better than in some other countries; the women I spoke to keep their own earnings and decide what to spend them on, education for their children being one of the priorities," Joyce said. Joyce is the leader of her group of weavers, and her year in America has boosted her confidence and given her ideas about how to further the group. She is the woman who liaises with NAWOU about orders, materials, and other logistics for her group. NAWOU finds the orders from Fair Trade buyers, and also has a little shop in Kampala, and the women work to fulfill the orders. Every Thursday the women come in to NAWOU's office in Kampala, many of them traveling as far as 75kms to get there, with the things they have made. It is important that NAWOU pays them then and there so that they will be able to help support their families as well as buy supplies to keep making products.
Working in partnership with Thanksgiving Coffee Co., Global Giving Coffee provides delicious Ugandan coffee, grown in the Eastern region of Uganda on the volcanic slopes of Mt. Elgon. Six hundred families of the Mirembe Kawomera Cooperative work together to produce the delicious coffee sold by Global Giving. Mirembe Kawomera (mir'em bay cow o mare'a) means "delicious peace" in the Ugandan language Luganda.
Members of the Mirembe Kawomera Cooperative consist consist of Bantu Jews, Christians, and Muslims working together to promote both religious tolerance and economic justice. Two dollars from the sale of each package of coffee are donated to the Nyaka School for Children Orphaned due to HIV/AIDS in rural Uganda. These donations aid in providing free primary education and extracurricular activities to children who have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS.
Check out our Global Giving Coffee product selection.
to Global Exchange Fair Trade Program
