Commentary | International Women’s Day
Special to the Acorn

When I think of honoring our sisters on International Women’s Day, I’m drawn to Uganda and the many trips I’ve taken to meet up with women in the small villages there.

I’ve been to Uganda 19 times since I founded The Greater Contribution in 2006, a nonprofit that provides microloans, education and business skills training to help Ugandan women lift themselves out of poverty by becoming entrepreneurs.

“Isn’t that an awfully rugged trip?” is the question I’m often asked. Sure, and it’s also where I’m the fortunate one who gets to connect with the women who inspire me most. Women who are turning their lives around despite dire circumstances.

More often than not, I return to our headquarters carrying a chicken or goat gifted to me from an appreciative “businesswoman.”

It was surprising to learn how solitary the lives of Ugandan women are. I’d been told they were regarded as “just kitchen women,” though I didn’t really know the depth of that phrase.

Culturally, they are to remain at home.

Many impoverished women had no friends and no contacts until they joined The Greater Contribution program.

They tell me that now they feel like they have a new family. And during a recent group mentoring class, when a woman shouted out “We love you for loving us,” I realized just how personal and transformative our work is.

However, I’ve also come to know that it’s often an uphill battle for women to enroll in our program. One woman reported that her husband demanded she stay home, saying that if she left to attend an informational meeting about it, she couldn’t return. But she did. She joined a loan group, took out a loan, built a business, and eventually went on to become a peer counselor mentoring other women.

And, by the way, her husband opposed her at every step.

Of all the women who touch my heart, the bravest are those with disabilities.

Doreen, who doesn’t have the use of her legs or hands, is known in her village as the most cheerful. She loves to make others laugh and resists any pity for her condition. She built a business to support her family. She even decided to run for office and now serves her district as the local Councilor for Disabled People, traveling by wheelchair to attend to the needs of others. There’s just no stopping her.

In my travels it’s thrilling to see the transformations underway when the village women believe in themselves and what they’re capable of. I see more women wearing shoes, more children in clean clothes, babies going to doctors, less meals skipped, and a confidence among them that’s contagious.

Our program director, Toffi, informed me that the ladies had been unable to find a vacant room in a church or school for their adult literacy classes—so, they built one. It was a remarkable moment when they proudly displayed it to me. Nothing was going to stop them on their journey toward becoming the women they were meant to be.

After they have been a part of the program for a few years and their village is prospering, I’m showered with bags of rice, beans and bananas, chickens, and even an occasional goat. But it was a visit to the village of Oliwiyo that left an indelible mark. A procession of ladies presented me with food items and two very special gifts: Beautiful ceramic birds nesting on pedals; a white bird for the peace that was brought to their village and a green one for the loans that brought abundance. I display them in my home office as a reminder of our outreach.

As of this year at The Greater Contribution, more than 30,000 microloans have been issued with a repayment rate of 98%. Typical incomes for women in Uganda prior to enrollment in the selfhelp programs is .35 cents per day. It’s many times greater than that after completion of the programs.

In honor of International Women’s Day, I am celebrating how the women we serve in Uganda inspire me. Perhaps it’s because we all share a sense of inclusion and belonging to something bigger than ourselves.

Karon Wright of Thousand Oaks is founder of the T.O.-based nonprofit The Greater Contribution.

When I think of honoring our sisters on International Women’s Day, I’m drawn to Uganda and the many trips I’ve taken to meet up with women in the small villages there.

I’ve been to Uganda 19 times since I founded The Greater Contribution in 2006, a nonprofit that provides microloans, education and business skills training to help Ugandan women lift themselves out of poverty by becoming entrepreneurs.

“Isn’t that an awfully rugged trip?” is the question I’m often asked. Sure, and it’s also where I’m the fortunate one who gets to connect with the women who inspire me most. Women who are turning their lives around despite dire circumstances.

More often than not, I return to our headquarters carrying a chicken or goat gifted to me from an appreciative “businesswoman.”

It was surprising to learn how solitary the lives of Ugandan women are. I’d been told they were regarded as “just kitchen women,” though I didn’t really know the depth of that phrase.

Culturally, they are to remain at home.

Many impoverished women had no friends and no contacts until they joined The Greater Contribution program.

They tell me that now they feel like they have a new family. And during a recent group mentoring class, when a woman shouted out “We love you for loving us,” I realized just how personal and transformative our work is.

However, I’ve also come to know that it’s often an uphill battle for women to enroll in our program. One woman reported that her husband demanded she stay home, saying that if she left to attend an informational meeting about it, she couldn’t return. But she did. She joined a loan group, took out a loan, built a business, and eventually went on to become a peer counselor mentoring other women.

And, by the way, her husband opposed her at every step.

Of all the women who touch my heart, the bravest are those with disabilities.

Doreen, who doesn’t have the use of her legs or hands, is known in her village as the most cheerful. She loves to make others laugh and resists any pity for her condition. She built a business to support her family. She even decided to run for office and now serves her district as the local Councilor for Disabled People, traveling by wheelchair to attend to the needs of others. There’s just no stopping her.

In my travels it’s thrilling to see the transformations underway when the village women believe in themselves and what they’re capable of. I see more women wearing shoes, more children in clean clothes, babies going to doctors, less meals skipped, and a confidence among them that’s contagious.

Our program director, Toffi, informed me that the ladies had been unable to find a vacant room in a church or school for their adult literacy classes—so, they built one. It was a remarkable moment when they proudly displayed it to me. Nothing was going to stop them on their journey toward becoming the women they were meant to be.

After they have been a part of the program for a few years and their village is prospering, I’m showered with bags of rice, beans and bananas, chickens, and even an occasional goat. But it was a visit to the village of Oliwiyo that left an indelible mark. A procession of ladies presented me with food items and two very special gifts: Beautiful ceramic birds nesting on pedals; a white bird for the peace that was brought to their village and a green one for the loans that brought abundance. I display them in my home office as a reminder of our outreach.

As of this year at The Greater Contribution, more than 30,000 microloans have been issued with a repayment rate of 98%. Typical incomes for women in Uganda prior to enrollment in the selfhelp programs is .35 cents per day. It’s many times greater than that after completion of the programs.

In honor of International Women’s Day, I am celebrating how the women we serve in Uganda inspire me. Perhaps it’s because we all share a sense of inclusion and belonging to something bigger than ourselves.

Karon Wright of Thousand Oaks is founder of the T.O.-based nonprofit The Greater Contribution.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in my life is gratitude. For me it creates a more joyous life as I appreciate the world around me—the simple things like a sunny day, flowers I see outside the window of my office, friends and family, simply getting up knowing I’ll have hot water for a shower.  What a wonderous thing gratitude is. It is transformative; it opens my heart to goodness and gives me a greater context for the events of my life.  It makes my life better.

I have learned more and more gratitude since working with women in Uganda and seeing how different our lives are.

The average woman in Uganda has no running water, no shower or bathtub, no electricity, no indoor plumbing. They walk everywhere as they are too poor to afford even a bicycle for transportation and live in areas without public transportation.  They don’t own jewelry, in most cases, not even a wedding ring. In my fourteen trips to Uganda, I’ve never seen one of our 1100 borrowers wearing a watch.

Nearsighted or farsighted? They don’t wear glasses as they’ve never been to an optometrist and couldn’t afford glasses if needed.  Their lives revolve around the very basics of life—how to feed their families, send their children to school, afford shoes for their children, afford health care when needed. This all helps me recognize how much I have to be grateful for, not just material things but the absence of stress around the simple necessities of life freeing me to do more important things.

And yet, I’m grateful for the smiling faces of the Ugandan women; to connect with them on a human level, to understand their lives, their needs, their joy, their gratitude for our help; to share a laugh with them.

I am enormously grateful that I can help ease someone else’s life; that I can help them help themselves and set them on the road out of poverty.  Grateful that I can empower them to be the women they want to be and deserve the opportunity to be.

I’m so grateful that so many of you recognize what a gift it is to reach out and help others.  This work is a blessing and I’m very grateful to share it with you and that motivates me to continue this work.