BENEDICTA N. NANYONGA

Benedicta Nanyonga, 69years old. Widow with six children, 10 grand children and 15 needy children she is caring for. Her education is senior one. She worked with Bank of Uganda for 23 years and left in 2001 due her medical problem.
In 1998, she started an organization called Kinawataka Women Initiatives, collecting used straws and people in her area called crazy as she was working in the bank of Uganda. The organization fully registered in 2003.
Due to this activity of collecting straws, people in the area despised her that (Butabika) the hospital for the crazy people is waiting for her, even her children were against the project at first, they said Mummy you are shaming us. She did not listen to any of those. She went ahead mobilizing fellow women and youths training them in income generating activities using used straws. Since then, 794 women and 300 youths have been trained in used straw products.
2007 she started involving herself in several exhibitions, workshops and seminars and people appreciated her initiative where she gained a very big network up to now both nationally and internationally. She encourages her fellow women not to discriminate any work. And she strongly supports families train their children to be entrepreneurs as they say that charity begins at home.