Vision Fund Restores Josephine

By Charlotte Muhwezi 

“I learned about Vision Fund through a friend whose daughter is a staff with Vision Fund. She mentioned to me that Vision Fund gives loans to people in the community who don’t have high sources of income and yet are passionate about being economically developmental,” says Josephine.

Josephine Natongo is married to Hillary Lwesabala and together they have 8 children (6 boys and 2 girls). Her family lives in Bukomero Town Council, Kiboga District, in the central part of Uganda. As I entered their home, I was warmly welcomed - I immediately felt the atmosphere of a very loving family. They were quick to mention that their chil-dren were all currently in school, an accomplish-ment they shared with pride. However, it was not always the case for this family.

Josephine represents many women in this community who received loans from Vision Fund to improve the well-being of their families. They have helped support their husbands financially and this has reduced the fi-nancial burden, lifting it off the shoulders of their husbands. In the past, it was only the men who thought about ways of supporting the family. With Vision Fund, women have realized that they can get loans and sup-port their husbands by providing for the family, too.

Josephine’s family grows a variety of fruits, such as oranges, mangoes, papaya and pineapples. Besides this, they also make a variety of chicken feeds, which they sell to people who raise chicken. Josephine received a loan of $300 and she bought more fruit seeds, a chicken feed mixer and more chicken feed ingredients (salt, silver fish, cotton seeds, cocoa, snail shells and calcium). All of these ingredients are added together in differ-ent variations to make nutritious chicken feeds.

People in the community that raise chickens go to them to buy their feeds, ranging from $1-5 depending on the ingredients. With the profits they make from the chicken feeds and fruits, they have been able to take their children to school and buy basic needs at home like food, shelter and clothing. This was never the case before they got a loan from Vision Fund. With the help of World Vision & Vision Fund, they have gone from struggling to pay school fees, to opening a new world for their children through education. For their commu-nity, those that raise chickens only have a short walk for their chicken feed, saving them walking very long dis-tances like they did before.

Vision Fund in Bukomero Village has given women an opportunity to fight poverty and support their husbands and families financially. Due to this, families are now much happier as they share the responsibilities, and their relationships have been restored because of the financial stability.