Women & Youth encouraged to organize themselves in groups in order to benefit from government programs like Women fund & Youth livelihood program (YLP).

Government with an objective of reducing unemployment & poverty in communities will support organized groups of women and youth aimed at improving household incomes. The funds will help women and youth to invest in community development projects that will bring about positive changes in the income levels of their families and improve living standards of Ugandans.

While making accountability for her ministry for Rwenzori region on ToroDev supported ‘Orukurato’ program that is aired live every Saturday 8:00pm-10:00pm on Hits Fm on 15^th July, 2017, Hon. Peace Mutuzo urged women in the region to embrace government programs if they are to improve on their living standards.  She said 40 women groups and about 171 youth groups from Kabarole district will benefit from the fund as a way of empowering these groups for economic development.

‘’The funds were released by the ministry on 29^th May 2017 to the district accounts and we hope very soon it will be transferred to group accounts to help them implement the planned activities, women  who are unemployed and organized in groups and showcasing some projects will always be supported by government’’, said Hon. Peace Mutuzo.

State Minister for Gender and Culture Peace Mutuzo

Hon. Peace Mutuzo urged the 40 groups of women and 171 youth groups from Kabarole who are supposed to benefit from the government support this financial year to appropriately use the money as planned. She said most often groups plan for projects and after receiving the money they divert to projects they did not plan before which affects their sustainability. She further said that the misappropriation of funds by some officials is no longer an issue because funds will be directly credited on the group account for proper management. The minister called upon district community development officers, sub county/parish chiefs and all other stakeholders in development to support and supervise these groups in order to realize the government intended objective of reducing poverty, unemployment and improving household income at household level.

During the program about 30 listeners participated through Sms & call-ins; ‘’For us doing poultry already face a challenge of diseases that come quite often and government has not done much to help us, what plans is the ministry having to support farmers affected by pests and diseases?’’, asked Ian Isingoma a caller from Kicuucu in Bunyangabu district, ‘’the minister is telling us that the ministry released money to districts accounts already but the district delay to release the money to group accounts and this has affected our plans, there is need for timely distribution of funds to successful groups’’, said Joseph Irumba a caller from Rwimi in Bunyangabu district, ‘’Many groups have applied for the funds but have not got it, which criteria do you use in choosing these groups?’’, said Grace Kamaikya a caller from Kasunganyanja in Bunyangabu district.

We thank SIDA, NED, SPIDER, ICT4DEM, CIPESA & all our development partners  for the support.