#18 Education and Menstruation in Uganda

In this weeks episode, I'm joined by the amazing Catherine Nakayemba and her colleague Reynard.

Catherine is co founder of an amazing charity in Uganda, where they support young women with education, starting up businesses and menstruation. For any young lady starting menstruation can be difficult and Gejja Women Foundation help to education both boys and girls by visiting the schools and going to communities.

In Uganda there are approximately 3.5 million adolescent girls who cannot afford products. I champion my listeners to donate on the following link SAFE GIRL . - GlobalGiving to help provide clean reusable pads.

Gejja Women Foundation strive to support inclusion for all within their country.

You can learn more about Gejja Women Foundation on the following link Gejja Women Foundation – advancing opportunities for women and girls in Uganda

Catherine's details are available here Catherine Nakayemba | LinkedIn

In this episode, Lorraine Venables assisted me by co - hosting.  Lorraine can be contacted on Lorraine Venables 🚀 | LinkedIn and her business Intrepid English can be found Intrepid English / home - Intrepid English

Voiceover for intro and outro by Jennie Eriksen | LinkedIn

Music granted free of charge very kindly by Music: https://www.purple-planet.com . The track is called Hope and Inspire.

Transcript

Scott Whitney: 0:59

Hello, and welcome to the next episode of The All 4 Inclusion Pod. Today, I am joined by two guests one very special guest and one, maybe not so special guest in, in a sense, but my not so special guests is actually coming into to co host with me. So I'll bring Lorraine in first, how are you doing the rain?

Lorraine Venables: 1:25

I'm very well, thank you, Scott, although I'm not very pleased to hear that I'm not so special. But then again, Catherine is a super special guest. So that's okay.

Scott Whitney: 1:34

It's only because I'm comparing you to Catherine, where you're, you're not so special in that sense. So

Lorraine Venables: 1:42

I'll take that.

Scott Whitney: 1:44

Do you mind introducing yourself to people listening to

Lorraine Venables: 1:47

Right, absolutely. So my name is Lorraine. And I own Intrepid English, which is my online English school. And I've known Scott for a little while now. We're both passionate about inclusion. And he invited me as he said, To co host this podcast today. And I jumped at the chance because I'm super, super impressed by this guests and the wonderful work that they're doing. So I'll let her introduce herself.

Scott Whitney: 2:13

Or do you want to make an introduction to Catherine? And then I'll pop her on the screen?

Lorraine Venables: 2:18

I can't I haven't prepared anything. But sure, sure. So Catherine, works with the amazing Gejja Foundation How should I pronounce that Catherine? Gejja? Yeah. Good. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm gonna ask you a lot of questions during today's podcast. So yeah, from from what I understand your your organisation helps women and girls in Uganda in rural Uganda to find education, support and have more independence.

Catherine Nakayemba: 2:53

Yeah, right. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect.

Scott Whitney: 2:59

Excellent. So, Catherine, do you mind just telling us to start with a little bit about about yourself?

Catherine Nakayemba: 3:05

Um, okay, thank you. First of all, thank you, Scott, for inviting me to this podcast. My name is Catherine. I am a Ugandan. I work with Gejja Womens Foundation, the word Gejja means growing big. So we want women to grow big, not in size, but you know, financially mentally. So that's why we chose the word Gejja. I work with government foundation. It's a Ugandan NGO, and we support women and girls through skills development, menstrual hygiene management, and educational support for the girl child. So basically, the street.

Scott Whitney: 3:52

Excellent. Excellent. And, and how long has Gejja been bringing been around?

Catherine Nakayemba: 4:03

I'm just started at the end of 2015. So we started in 2016. Until today, those are those five years?

Scott Whitney: 4:15

Five, five and a half. Yeah. So yeah, excellent. And I guess, you know, Lorraine will probably go into some, some more in depth questions than myself. But you know, how was how was kind of get your and and Uganda kind of impacted by by COVID. how was Gejja impacted by COVID 19.

Catherine Nakayemba: 4:57

I think just like any other business, Gejja was also impacted by COVID-19. Being an NGO, we depend more on donations and grants. And because during COVID People are not working. And so we were challenges with funds. We had to our kids has to have had to stress at school, those that we support under the educational support. Because gatherings were not allowed in Uganda. We had to stop with menstrual hygiene campaigns in communities and schools. Our workers had to go home and you know, start doing other things. Like it impacted the whole programme and everything

Scott Whitney: 5:42

Yeah, so from imagine that being being very hard. Now I know Lorraine has prepared a list of questions. Start with her list. And then if there's anything that I jump in with halfway.

Lorraine Venables: 6:03

Oh, no, no, absolutely. I didn't want to take over your podcast here. But yes, I am very excited. So it's particularly interesting for me because I'm really passionate about education in general, but particularly for young girls and for women. Purely because in many areas of the world, there is such a big gap between education which is available for for men, and for women and girls. So, the so Gejja foundation is doing several things, which I find just fantastic. Firstly, educating, well trying to help girls to to see a future for a start. Understand people are there supporting them, and understanding more about themselves in their bodies. So that's just fantastic for me to understand that well done. As a as a startup, which is quite young, you've got a growing team, haven't you? How are you? How are you managing things? Are you all based in in rural Uganda, where you you live? Or do you have other branches in different places in Uganda?

Catherine Nakayemba: 7:19

We are currently located on we only have one branch that's in Uganda, in a certain village called Mpiji that's outside Kampala, the capital city. That's where we are. But earlier this year, we partnered with another organisation, one of our supporters co founded Ganesha in German. So now we also have a team of other people. In German, yes. With Ganesha also, they just start there. So I would say that is the second branch. Yeah.

Lorraine Venables: 8:03

Excellent, lovely. Yeah, I read that. Angela, the founder, she was she took part in a startup initiative to get the business started. And this is something that's really sort of relevant for me right now. Because I'm in a similar sort of stage of not applying for grants and things like that. So it's really interesting to me to see how people are doing it in different places in the world. But getting help from main organisations, established organisations must be really helpful. So how, if you're based in one place, how do you reach as many women as you reach? How do you do that travelling quite a lot.

Catherine Nakayemba: 8:46

So we have, we have, like you said, you have very many things that we do with the women and then with the girls. So with the menstrual hygiene management, we travel a lot, we travel all over the country, to deliver the trainings to do the awareness campaigns on menstruation and hygiene. So that's how we'll reach some of these women. We, we also partner with organisations that help us reach the women in different communities and districts around

Lorraine Venables: 9:19

Lovely. So I've got real question about the country. this, because I understand that there are many challenges to what you're doing, partly to do with with running an NGO. But I guess there must be cultural challenges as well. When you're going to make rural places in Uganda. How are you received there? Are you quite welcome? Or do you have difficulties with locals?

Catherine Nakayemba: 9:48

Well Uganda is Uganda has friendly people, we are very friendly. So we are always welcomed in, in communities where we go, but it depends. The challenge comes in when you're going to talk about menstruation on the subject you're going to talk about. So if you're going to talk about women empowerment, you always be welcome. But then if you switch to menstruation, then the men who will think that that's not their topic, they're not supposed to be in that space with women when you're going to talk about menstruation. So most times they think they did.

Lorraine Venables: 10:29

Yeah, yeah. Right. That's really interesting. Yeah, I read that. Uganda is one of the is ranked currently one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world. So there's a huge potential moment for new organisations to come up. Are you? Are you? You know, do you get a lot of support for this this kind of thing? Because Scott and I from the UK, we both have our own organisations. And it is challenging, isn't it? Scott, we can talk about it from the point of view of someone from the UK, but you know, you're getting a lot of support, and you raising awareness in your country for what you're doing.

Catherine Nakayemba: 11:10

It is very challenging. Also, I think, just like in the UK, it is very challenging, mostly, when you're fundraising, it is very, very hard, starting from, you know, registering the organisation. The procedures, because I think our laws are also not very clear, but then you have to register the business to operate it in Uganda. But the process itself takes like forever. And then you have to look for funds. And I don't know from our government, you will not any Get Any Free money. Even if you're supporting women or God's girls, you will not get money, you have to look for the funds yourself from anywhere. So very challenging.

Lorraine Venables: 11:59

Yeah, you have one, I think one, like, one isn't the right word for this, but earned to get to really competitive grants already, haven't you? Which is fantastic. Yeah, that's great to know. Can you tell us about those? Um,

Catherine Nakayemba: 12:19

I think one of it was Impact Hub. Is that. So in the process of looking for funds, we do apply for grants. Right, proposed proposals, and then you get selected. So this is how we get our funds. The two that have I have been, I have one, I think one was in last year in 2021. With impact IT IS IT support also female intrapreneurs in Africa, starting with giving you mentorship and sessions on intrapreneurship, and all that, and then at the end of the programme, you get some NATO fund to support a certain category or department in the business. And then the other one was in 2020, it was for impact. Creating impact in Uganda in the lives of women and girls, and that was under the menstrual hygiene management programme.

Lorraine Venables: 13:36

Wonderful, great, great job. Okay, Scott, any questions so far before I just swim on forward?

Scott Whitney: 13:44

Well, actually, yeah, so I mean, when you go into the, to the different communities to speak to people, what's the do you find that most communities are very similar? Or are there sort of big, big differences between the communities

Catherine Nakayemba: 14:07

and communities around around Uganda unless in Central, okay, because we have like the central, the northern and then the east, and they are very different. The Central Community is different from the northern community. And before you go there, you already know because we know these people that the northerners, this is how they behave, and this is how they will come in. So they are totally different. But as Ugandans we are already well, conversant with that.

Scott Whitney: 14:37

And I know when we when we spoke beforehand, we spoke about sort of Uganda and people in a wheelchair and with disabilities. Sort of, you know, how how much you get into into contact and support people with the disabilities as well.

Catherine Nakayemba: 15:03

It is, it is very hard. I have known, been so much in contact with very many people with disabilities. We work with a few in the women startup department and then we have one deaf person in our production on our production team. What I can say about disability, it is hard for you to get a job in Uganda if you're disabled. Because we think the society thinks that you are unable to deliver to work so It's actually most of the disabled people that I have seen in Uganda. Most of them are beggars on the streets. But I've also seen in Kampala, a market that is dedicated for the disabled people it is called, it is also called the disabled. Market, it is for them to work from there. The other thing is, Uganda is not accessible for people with disability. Starting with toilets, our buildings are not accessible for such people. Like it's like, we don't consider them at all. And I think the problem comes in, because we don't know how to deal with them. I'll give an example of our, our, our, our girl here that the one that works in in production. She's deaf, and I always find it hard to communicate with her. And I always feel that she's being left alone, because others are jazzy and having fun. And she's just quiet. So a few weeks back, she brought me a book, a sign language book, because I think she realised that it's hard for me to communicate with her. So she brought me a book to enable me to communicate to her. And I have learned a few things. So now we are kind of connecting. So it's hard for you to get this about people on your team. Because you can't have one of them. She'll be bored like this one. She's, she's always bored keeping quiet. So the past week, I talked to my team, and I was like, you know, I think we need to get some other person, another disabled person may be deaf, to be with her so that she gets a friend, someone to talk to at work, someone to understand her better. So I think that's why people don't really, you know, consider giving them jobs because of communicative communication, how to communicate with them, how to relate to them, and all that.

Lorraine Venables: 18:12

A shame, but that's unfortunately, similar here in the UK, isn't it, Scott, in many ways, just not not knowing how to not having any bad intentions. But then, you know, just then oh, it's easier if we don't that's that's the big challenge that we need to overcome, isn't it?

Scott Whitney: 18:32

Yeah, exactly. And I think you know, what you're doing is putting accessibility to, to the young, young woman, young ladies in, in Uganda. And I think we've got someone else who's who's about to join as someone who's a friend of yours. Just bring her in. Hi, Reynard, thank you very much for for joining us.

Reynard: 18:58

How are you guys?

Scott Whitney: 19:00

Very well.

Lorraine Venables: 19:05

What do you do at the Gejja foundation then Reynard.

Reynard: 19:12

Part of the menstrual campaign, I opened nice campaigns, in schools or in communities. I'm also part of the marketing team for the reusable centre part. Yeah.

Scott Whitney: 19:27

Excellent. How'd you how'd you find that you find that you're welcomed in schools are you welcomed with open arms?

Reynard: 19:40

Ah, in schools, like at first they, it's a bit hard until we explain to them the benefits of these sessions to the young girls and boys. And in most cases, teachers are not around during the sessions because they feel shy. Like, yeah, but all in all, in the end, we deliver the information and surprisingly, that girls and boys always have questions. And I believe they learn a lot from the sessions.

Scott Whitney: 20:23

Excellent, excellent. Oh, well, I'll let Lorraine get back to her list of questions. Very long list.

Lorraine Venables: 20:32

It Yeah. I was reading up on the wonderful work you guys are doing and I just yeah, I'm just so impressed with it all here in the UK. The type of education is provided by the teachers in the schools normally. But as you can imagine, they're often times male, and they're not. If they are female teachers, even then they wouldn't be sort of experts in how to teach kids about these things. So I think it's just wonderful that you're giving young girls an opportunity to learn more about themselves. And young boys the opportunity to learn more about your girls as well, that's really, really important, I think. And there's, there's a, there's a concept that keeps coming up in the conversation so far. And I think it's, it's about the intersection between education, and you know, having independence in yourself. And for a lot of young girls, because of misconceptions, because of things that people don't quite understand. They can be held back, I'm sure in Uganda and in many, many countries all over the world. So I'm particularly interested to ask you, Catherine or Reynard, about your work then with other kinds of educational support. And it's on your on your website, it says that you're offering scholarships to marginalise girls to be able to stay in school. Can you tell us more about that sounds like such a fantastic initiative.

Catherine Nakayemba: 22:12

So, before we started the Educational Support Programme under the good German Foundation, one of our girls policy, I think she's also on our website, policy was going to be marriage, her parents were sending her off for marriage. Because she went into her periods, and she asked for pads, and the parents didn't want to spend on pads. So they decided to send her off for marriage. That's how that's when we found her. And we brought her in, and she became part of us. And so she gave us a chance to also start safe girl to do the reusable sanitary pads. So on the educational part, I think in Uganda, they always consider the boys small and fast, the fast consider the boys before the girls, it is starting to change. But this is how it has been happening. Because they think the waste their money when a girl child, because at the end of it, maybe in the middle of their education, they will get married, they'll get pregnant, and they don't want to waste their money on that. So they would rather send a boy to school, then leave the girl at home do housework than sending both of them. So that is starting to change really. But in a family where they are there. More boys, less girls are equal. They send the boys at school first. So in the educational support for us, we support the girls that are maybe orphanages, those that parents can not afford education, and they decide to send the girl off for marriage or just leave her home to do housework. So those are the girls specific girls that we support and an indication of support.

Lorraine Venables: 24:22

Yeah, so this organisation is is really impacting not only this generation, but the next as well. Because if girls can learn more about their own bodies, they'll have more autonomy, more independence about their own bodies, and maybe can make more choice about Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure culturally, but but you know about contraception and about family planning in the future, which is, which is wonderful. And it all connects, doesn't it? Everything connects to one another. That I read that the average number of children per woman in Uganda is currently 5.6, which is really quite high compared to the rest of the world, in places like the UK and in Japan, you know, the the number is, is around one or under one. So we've got a shrinking population in some countries. So I think this kind of education really has to come at such a great time. And giving you as much support as we can, and raising awareness about that. Everywhere is important, I think, because the discussions that we're having are are global in many cases, you know, patriarchal views, beliefs about a woman's role and about out how they should be dependent on on the male earners in the family. These are conversations that I've had many people in many, many places in the world. There, it's so important that we're having these conversations for a start, and that you guys are doing the wonderful work that you're doing. Catherine, I asked, How can we support you more? How? How can we help you more, and to do this really important work that you're doing?

Catherine Nakayemba: 26:17

Most of our work depends on donations and grants. So we are constantly looking for people to support our just like you are interested in education, you might say, I would like to support to support a child under education or support programme, or something like that. So we looking for people to support us in all the different programmes that we do under the German Foundation, starting with the Women's StartUp programme, the menstrual hygiene and the education. We are also looking to, for partnerships with different organisations. Un UNDP, unicaf, you know, the organisations that support girl child education organisations that support women empowerment, I believe if they come on board, we can be able to make massive impacts all around the country and beyond it. Yeah.

Lorraine Venables: 27:22

It's got any questions there, I don't want to monopolise the conversation.

Scott Whitney: 27:27

You know, I've brought you in to co host as, as more of an expert in a new field where I look at more people with with disabilities, and you look at more the educational side of all things. So I'm just gonna go backandask Reynad another question actually about about the schools? And do Is there any, any children in schools with with disabilities are the physical or hidden disabilities? And if so, is that any support for them? Or what is the support

Reynard: 28:12

so the campaigns we do are mostly in rural areas of Uganda. And for me, all the time, I've been doing these campaigns of seen a few a few of them attending school, I think they are like, I've seen like, five, six, for all these years that we've been doing that campaigns. And it's mostly girls with like that they have girls, those who don't talk mostly of them, they do not attend schools. Some of them they are taken to special to special schools, in kids in wheelchairs, there have only seen one. And we, we've known, like, they have not received that special care, like you can find at school where the washrooms they are not considered in classrooms. Like during the lesson they are still not considered. And then it's more doing the work taking them on the pace of the students that are okay. Yeah, I have not accounted many of the campaign's Yeah, so probably most of them stay at home or they are taken to special schools, which we have not visited yet.

Scott Whitney: 30:12

Okay. And, obviously, you know, to me, I've done a lot of these, a lot of these podcasts and, and a lot of the reasons why I want to do them is because all I want to do is just tell a story and raise awareness. But for me, this one isn't about just telling us worry. It's not about raising awareness. It's it's far more important than that. It's something where on how hoping that people will be able to listen to this, and look at your website and look at ways that they can make a donation. And, and, you know, whether it's a small amount or a large amount, it all adds up. And it all goes to supporting, empowering. educating women in Uganda, which as Lorraine pointed out earlier, is such an entrepreneurial country. So what is the best way that someone can provide? You know, someone who's listening to this? What's the best way they can provide a donation? We have? Would it be? Would it be the donation page on your website, that's the best, best place to go,

Catherine Nakayemba: 31:49

Ah, yeah, they can use someone that wants to donate to support can use the donation link on our website. But we also have a campaign running on a global keeping globally driven platform. I don't know if you know it. There are two, two fundraising campaigns running still under the good German foundation. So they can also donate through those links,

Scott Whitney: 32:22

actually, because all of those, all of those links your website, straight to the donation page on your website, and those global links are in the notes that come with this podcast. So no one has to go looking for anything they've got to do is read the commentary underneath, press a button, right there. And it's as simple as simple as that, to be able to support you guys really. And obviously, the money goes to, you know, I've seen on the website, when we break it down to X amount of pounds, gives that X amount of pounds gives this and I think it's something like as little as seven pounds, provides reusable pads, which, you know, that's, that's gonna help, you know, a child or woman for a long time. So it's, it's not, not what I'm trying to say is we don't need to pay much money to be able to give a lot of support. That's important for people. Lovely.

Lorraine Venables: 33:38

I was wondering, Catherine already knows if you could tell us about some of the wonderful people that you've helped so far. Do you have any stories that you can tell us of the young girls and women that you've supported already and the impact that you've had on their life?

Catherine Nakayemba: 33:57

I will tell you about one and they Reynard can also tell a story. The significant one for me. So, okay, I'll start with this. We have, we have a Women's Centre where Gejja Womens foundation is located. We have a centre and we have space where women and girls can always come learn skills, feel at home. So they're always here anytime any day. They are here because it's the women's centre for them. And then one woman that we supported was in 2019. She lost her daughter's her children in a tree a tree fell on her house when the children were in the house. Three of them died. And then one of our supporters came and we told her story of the woman because she loves her children and she was depressed. She had no house and she was sleeping in the kitchen. A small kitchen like this not this modern kitchens very small. She was living in the kitchen with her two grand daughters. So when one of our supporters came to Uganda to visit us, she went back and fundraised money and reconstructed for her home. She was very, very happy she still is she always wants to give us gifts for that. So now she has a home where she can say with her grandchildren. And for me that is incredible thing that we put a smile on her face. You know, she was very depressed, she couldn't do anything. But now she's you know, she now comes and participates in Archit VTEs. So that for me, is incredible. And keeps me going.

Lorraine Venables: 36:02

Yeah, I can imagine. Can you imagine with with with, you know, you're travelling a lot, you're working so hard and you know, it must be exhausting sometimes. But seeing the impact you're making in someone's life, I'm sure must make it all worthwhile. All the work that you're doing. Wow, thank you for sharing that Catherine. Reynard can you tell us about someone whose life you've impacted?

Reynard: 36:28

For me, there are two girls. I will start with one. My name is Maria, ie, she came like still at the centre, I think during the COVID time. That is a time she got pregnant. And she couldn't go back home. So we brought her at the centre, she gave birth to her beautiful baby girl. And now she's back to school. She went back to school because she was young, she supposed to go back to school, that girl has grown. And I'm happy that she was able to take care of that child to give back to this child and then still have a chance to go back to school. And then another girl that I feel I feel connected to is fairly stuck. She is now part of the women startups. She's not like her parents, her stepmom doesn't like her so much. So she wants her out of her home. But she like she's hard working. She wants to watch when she came at the centre. She was able that we were able to provide her with starting capital. And now she's making liquid soap. And like her progress is so nice that she now has a vision. She wants to make liquid soap, she wants to create a label for it. Yeah.

Lorraine Venables: 38:13

I'd love to ask you more about the startups as well. So just as in theory, you guys help, obviously, with hygiene and education. We also help women with startup ideas. And the Gejja women foundation, it also was one of the initiatives that was successful through a similar kind of project. So yeah, tell us about these women's startups. What do you provide for them? And and yeah, what kinds of businesses like the liquid soaps that you just mentioned, drain out what kind of businesses are being created because of your work.

Reynard: 38:52

So for the women startups, we consider passion, what that someone wants to do. Most of them come and they tell us me, I want to do this, because we believe when you do what you want, you will do it. So they come around, they tell us what they want to do. And then we start from there, we mentor them in business and in professional personal growth and professional growth. Also provide them with starting happy to start to start their businesses.

Lorraine Venables: 39:38

In Europe, the statistics have been the same for about 10 years that there's only 1% of venture capital is available to only women owned businesses. So about 80% is available and that 89% is available for men, men, male owned businesses, and about 9% is available for mixed female and male owned businesses. So that's leaving under 2% available for female fully owned businesses, either one female or in your hasn't changed much in the last 10 years, unfortunately. But it starts with educating both men and women about the situation and moving forward. So as a female business owner, this is something I've come up against myself as well. So that's why Catherine was asking you earlier about, you know, the the challenges that you've had growing the business, especially as a full female team, you are a full female team, aren't you? Many women working here organisation Yeah, yes.

Catherine Nakayemba: 40:49

No, no, no. We have. Sorry. We have no we also have male people, males working on our team, but in a different department.

Lorraine Venables: 41:03

Okay, I found I found that in our team on your on your website, it was mostly women, all women there. So yeah, that's, that's great

Catherine Nakayemba: 41:11

most, most of us are women.

Lorraine Venables: 41:13

Yeah. And and you bet you're growing and you've got a partnership now with another initiative, which, which is going to help you to move forward as well. Have you been getting much support from them? What's in the future for you guys and your partnership?

Catherine Nakayemba: 41:31

They help us source funds from everywhere, and then the the support the work on ground. So basically, for us, we are doing the work on ground and then they are helping us source for funds.

Lorraine Venables: 41:49

Great, and you're looking for more partnerships like that?

Catherine Nakayemba: 41:52

Yes, yes.

Lorraine Venables: 41:55

Wonderful. Okay, cool. All my questions done Scott

Scott Whitney: 42:01

Perfect. Perfect. So I think I think we've got a video which we're going to put on in a moment. But before we do, you know, there's going to be the majority of the people that will be listening to this Catherine will be people from the from the UK, there will be people from from other countries as well, who will be listening. But But what sort of message Have you got? What, you know, if you've got a message that you would like to give out to the people that have have tuned in for this episode.

Catherine Nakayemba: 42:40

Thank you for watching, and Scott, thank you for supporting, looking out for you know, people, I think you have a good heart, for whatever, for the people that will be watching this, thank you for watching, and we can't do this alone. But with your support, you know, I always believe that to when we come together, we create amazing things. So wherever you are, wherever you do, when we are together, I believe amazing things can happen. So please join us at Gejja Women foundation to make massive impact in the lives of women and girls in Uganda.

Scott Whitney: 43:33

Excellent, thank you. Reynard have you got anything you'd like to add to that before we before we put the video on

Reynard: 43:45

thank you for inviting us on this for the podcast. And to people viewing. I would like to encourage them to be able to be inclusive in any anywhere, like supporting each other. In silly it can be in their countries in other countries. Yeah. It doesn't take much to help. Just with support.

Catherine Nakayemba: 44:23

And also, and also, for us we say disability is not inability people that are disabled are able to do anything if you give them the chance.

Scott Whitney: 44:41

Very much agree with that. I very much agree with that. So I'm going to try to do something technical now and I'm going to try to put on the video from your website. So this video is on the Gejja woman Foundation website. We just thought it would be good for you to listen to. So I'll leave it to the video.

Unknown: 45:11

Women foundation started in at the end of 2015 with around 35 Women in impedance. beneficiaries that were school dropouts that were at the verge of being sent to the health funding. We managed to send them back to the butt count of boots, Derman foundation how to make it Currently, the Gejja Foundation works with all around the different villages. We offer basic programmes in the community, we have the education that is rendered to those, those could afford to keep a school, but with continued education in schools and communities to boost undernutrition for the school going through, and especially in government, and also in our families, for the mothers to be able to fly and offer that for their family can be used. As children, especially in schools, sell books that pays Foundation, we encourage women to start up their own jobs, through our mentoring and coaching processes that we ran out to them, that women are able to set up their own social enterprises that can benefit not only them, but our society where they're living and the environment that life throws at you. While you're throwing it out again. Same day I gave John Foley I didn't own any knows of Danica or T. Named Danica was ever Monday. Now st is the number one cause just glad you deserve a chance of being you know, located your foundation by generating fake rock running our channel. And our biggest name issue that we are tackling is menstruation. As you could be known menstruation is one of the hardest issues women face around the world, not only in Uganda, but even in developed countries. ministration is one thing that is not easily talked about. When it comes to Africa, it is always a worse topic. Children are never given ideas about what to expect during their time in this administration. They used to the material ranging from banana fibre, banana, Polly said toilet paper, among others. And Foundation, we believe that ministration should never isolate or shame or offers any woman at any given period during the administration. Join us today and be a part of the Gates Foundation inspire change

Scott Whitney: 48:35

that's not the first time I've watched I've watched that video a number of times and I don't know about you like my my hairs on my arm stick up. It's it's very personal. It's very moving. And and yeah, it's it's very, you know, it's excellent to just show case what you guys do. So I guess it's it's time to thank our listeners. And thank them for for listening today. It's been, I would say quite an emotional podcast episode. First of all, I better also say thank you to my not so special guests. Lorraine, who, who co hosted with me. And I'd also like to say thank you to both Catherine and Reynard for for joining us. So and also thank you very much for listening. But don't forget, in the notes, there will be a link. I encourage everyone to have a look. See what difference you can make to people in in Uganda. So thank you all very much. And yeah, once again. Thank you Katherine Lorraine and Reynard. Thank you.

Catherine Nakayemba: 50:02

Thank you. Thank you, Lorraine. Thank you, Scott.