Speeches Shim
Annette’s father was a doctor and left her family when she was two years old. She had eight brothers and sisters, and there was a lot of pressure on her mother to care for that many children alone. The pressure drove her mother to drink. Annette didn’t have enough money to pay school fees to continue her education, so she asked her father for help. He refused. Eventually, Annette’s mother left, and the children were orphaned. Not knowing what was next, Annette married very young and had two kids of her own. Her husband was very abusive and drank a lot. She divorced him and then married another man who, unfortunately, presented similar problems.
Near the start of its long journey north from Lake Victoria, the Nile River forms the western border of Uganda’s Kamuli district. The district is blanketed by small farms and dotted with small homes and quiet villages. On the edge of one of these villages a half-dozen sewing machines clatter away in a tree-shaded courtyard. It is here that Musogah Dinah Christine teaches a group of physically disabled women to sew.
Healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy is critical to the health of mothers and babies. When children are spaced several years apart, parents are better able to provide for their children, ensuring they eat the right food for good nutrition. It also allows mothers to physically recover before they become pregnant again.
Elvanis Nkundwa reaches up and plucks red coffee cherries from the branch of one of her coffee trees. She moves quickly and confidently through her orchard, harvesting cherries by the handful. Narrow footpaths cut between the trees; taller trees overhead provide shade and a home for the numerous birds whose songs fill the mountain air.
For decades Karamoja was a site of a brutal conflict between tribes who fought over land, raided cattle, and revenged the thefts with violence and sometimes death. Although the Ugandan government has successfully campaigned to disarm tribes since 2001, sporadic cattle raiding continues to ignite anger and periodic violence.
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