President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and First Lady Janet Museveni have pledged financial and material support to the Teso Widows Development Initiative, a community effort dedicated to uplifting widows and disadvantaged groups in the Teso sub-region.
The President hosted members of the initiative at his country home in Irenga, Ntungamo District, where he committed Shs 600 million to establish a technical institute that will provide skills and education to widows and their children. He said the funding would cover books, laboratory instruments, salaries, and the general running of the school for its first two years.
“This is a very good effort,” President Museveni said while welcoming the proposal presented by the initiative.
In addition, he pledged Shs 100 million to support the establishment of a Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) to provide soft loans for members. He also promised a pickup truck for the initiative and a bus for the new institute to ease transportation.
The Teso Widows Development Initiative, which has 36,000 members, aims to improve livelihoods and create opportunities for disadvantaged families. In a memorandum signed by Director Beatrice Omese and presented by Secretary Pauline Akello, the group requested government support for a technical institute to empower their children with practical skills.
Members praised the President’s leadership, saying, “You have changed our name from the mothers of problems to mothers of blessings.”
First Lady Janet Museveni, who is also the Minister of Education and Sports, encouraged the widows to embrace a culture of saving. She urged them to move away from borrowing to spend and instead build self-reliance through collective investment.
“The problem we have is that we don’t know how to save, and we often borrow to spend,” she said, adding that even small, consistent savings could grow into significant investments.
She further advised women’s organisations to unite with a vision of establishing their own bank in the future, citing an inspiring example of Bangladeshi women who built one of the largest banks in the world despite limited resources.
The initiative members also thanked the First Lady for her continuous support, particularly her contribution to entrepreneurship training for vulnerable groups.
