EMPOWERING REFUGEES
Marked by poverty and fleeing from war, a group of female entrepreneurs in Uganda is rewriting the rules of success, with a little help from their Australian sisters.
A group of female entrepreneurs in Uganda is rewriting the rules of success.
Raising her voice to be heard over the ceremonial sound of Burundi drums echoing in the courtyard, Gloria Mbirinde wants the record to show that although it may not seem it, she is an Australian through and through. The 59-year-old belongs to a community group known as ‘The Australian Women’ – a curious description for women who’ve never visited our fair land some 12,630km away from the Kampala, Uganda community centre where we meet.
As Mbirinde begins sharing her heartbreaking story of fleeing her homeland of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and becoming a refugee in Uganda, themes of mateship, community and a fair go become evident, making this as Australian a story as any. Mbirinde is part of a tight-knit group of friends, sisters and colleagues that make up the Refugee Women’s Craft Group, formed when a few refugee women came together at a local community centre and began sharing their craft skills in order to earn a regular income and rebuild their lives in a foreign land. What began in 2014 with six women making tablecloths, keyrings and jewellery has grown to around 36 – many the sole providers
Uganda has more than 1.3m asylum seekers and refugees.
for their families after fleeing conflict, violence and trauma. They work side-by-side in the community centre and sell their wares at locations around Kampala. Each member contributes a daily amount of UGX5,000 (around $A2) which is distributed to members rotationally on a weekly basis. To date, the group’s members have trained over 100 local women in crafts skills.
FROM HOMELESS TO LEADERS
Naomi Steer, Founding National Director of Australia for UNHCR – the only international agency in Australia solely focused on refugees – has championed the group from the beginning. “Study after study shows the economic wellbeing of women benefits the entire community. I’ve seen those who were sleeping in the streets with their kids become business leaders who are now pressing on to become landowners. Projects like this give women resilience and hope for a better tomorrow and keep them moving forward.” The group’s lifeline
came in 2014 when Australia for UNHCR became its largest customer, purchasing 15,000 keyrings to include in its welcome packs for new donors. “Each one carries a tag telling the women’s personal stories, reminding our donors of the families they’re helping,” says Steer.
The refugee situation in Uganda, one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, is critical. According to the latest official figures from UNHCR, it is home to 1.3 million refugees and asylum seekers. Gloria Mbirinde’s story is not an easy one to hear. “They came for you at night,” she says, referring to her home country of DRC, an African country marred by civil war and corruption. “They would go from village to village raping and killing everyone they could find – men, women, children – even babies.”
In 2005, the rebels came to the village where Mbirinde lived with her husband, son and daughter. “For two years we slept outside in the bushes, too afraid to enter our own house in case they came, but then one night my husband said he was tired of being scared. He wanted to sleep in our family home one last time,” Mbirinde says quietly. “Neighbours told me the following morning he’d been shot in the middle of the night. That’s when I knew I was all alone and I had no choice but to flee with my children.”
The first few years in Uganda were difficult. Mbirinde slept on a church verandah so she would have enough money to send her children to school. “I was desperate to make a life so I learned English from the local Sunday School children and made it clear that I had sewing skills and was available to work,” she says. “When I sent a card I’d cross-stitched to InterAid Uganda at Christmas to thank them for their help, I received a call from them asking whether I knew how to make other crafts items because they were looking at starting a new project that would become the Refugee Women’s Craft Group.” Within weeks, a jubilant Mbirinde had the means to buy 10kg bags of salt, beans and maize. “That’s the moment I could see my life changing,” Mbirinde says. It’s only later that she confides in me that her young daughter never lived long enough to see her mother’s success; she grew sick and died of a blood disorder in 2017 just as the craft group was gaining momentum.
Mbirinde’s co-workers also share their stories. Agnes fled her native Rwanda with her children after her eight-year-old daughter was attacked in their home. “Uganda hasn’t been easy either; one night, people broke into my house and beat me and then three years later, I was abducted, raped and dumped in a forest. I test HIV positive after this incident,” she says.
“Before I joined this group, I felt lonely much of the time; the refugee experience is isolating,” says 33-year-old Congolese mother of three, Chantal Uwera. “My life started the day I joined the Refugee Women’s Craft Group. These women ... they’re my sisters and my friends. I know that no matter what life throws at me, they’ll be by my side supporting me.”
Walking through the grounds of the community centre, the mood is unexpectedly jovial. With Singer machines whirring as mothers juggle toddlers on their laps and yards of fabric in their hands, children play in the garden and the adults display their wares on trestle tables. There’s a feeling of possibility in the air as each room, each square metre buzzes with industry. One room houses a driving school, another has English and literacy classes, while a couple of doors down, there’s make-up and hairdressing skills. The women are also creating an online marketplace and preparing to take part in Australia for UNHCR’s new cultural immersion program, the Leading Women Uganda Immersion Experience, which encourages female leaders to travel to Uganda to see how UNHCR empowers refugee women. Its focus is a leadership exchange with the entrepreneurial women from the Refugee Women’s Craft Group and Mbirinde is looking forward to skill-sharing with the Australians who have done so much for them.
“Most of everything you’ve seen here today is because of Australia,” Mbirinde says as her eyes well up. “When we walk the streets, everyone whispers and points, ‘There go the Australian women’. It makes us feel great. I’m looking forward to meeting other Australians to share that feeling with.”
“THAT’S THE MOMENT I COULD SEE MY LIFE CHANGING.”
GLORIA MBIRINDE