EmpowerU Cash+ bolsters Pamella Abwoyo’s catering business

Public events in rural Uganda such as weddings, burials and funerals attract large crowds of people. In some cases, such crowds remain at the venue for days either merrymaking in case of a wedding or commiserating with the bereaved when it comes to death. Even when it is time for enjoyment, usually women are stationed at the back in makeshift kitchens to ensure food is cooked and served. Some of these are usually elder women and members of an informal village association that supports each other in times of need.

Although this may bind communities socially together, cooking for hundreds of people is not for the fainthearted. Cooking usually lasts hours and takes place in the night when temperatures can be in their lowest digits. They must keep awake so that the food doesn’t get burnt but also to avoid sometimes greedy youth who may steal the meat or such other stuff considered delicacies.

These women always work as volunteers so their availability is not always assured. Sometimes, several events take place on the same day. Communities always don’t have enough utensils and such as other basics to ensure a smooth cooking operation.

For years, Pamella Abwoyo had been watching these women and even participated in the preparation of food for such events and started asking herself questions. Is there a better way to provide food at such functions? Should communities always rely on volunteers? What if she could start a business that ends the reliance on communities to prepare food at such functions?

The more questions she asked herself, the more she realized that she could be the answer, at least for the communities in Appyatta East village, Ogili subcounty in Lamwo District and surrounding villages. 

But to do this as a business, there was one hindering block. Although she considered herself a good cook, she lacked formal training in catering. “I started looking for an opportunity to do a course in catering. Luckily, I found one. A Non-Government Organisation was looking for people to be trained and I chose catering,” she says.

Abwoyo’s next challenge was were to find the capital to start her dream business. The 38-year-old mother looks after nine children. “Five of those children belong to my sister who passed away yet I am a single mother,” she reveals.

Nevertheless, she started toiling to set up her business, buying one plate or sauce pan at a time. As luck would have it, Abwoyo’s answers were soon to be answered when she enrolled into the EmpowerU Cash+ programme.

The EmpowerU Cash+ programme is a partnership between UNICEF and the Development Response to Displacements Impact Project (DRDIP) of the Office of the Prime Minister.  With funding from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, EmpowerU Cash+ was devised to empower select families with cash transfers for six months to complement protection, health, education and nutrition services. Savings and skills training was an integral part of the package and was provided by DRDIP not only to beneficiaries but also non-beneficiaries.

The goals of the programme were to provide humanitarian cash transfers to children in addressing malnutrition and food insecurity; develop skillsets and referral pathways to sustainable income generating activities; and foster a savings culture that would cushion communities from acute shocks.

The programme targeted a maximum of four children per household with a transfer of Shs45,000 per a month per a child, totaling to Shs180,000 for each beneficiary household per a month. Money was dispatched every two months making it three payment cycles. The programme was implemented in Lamwo, a district with high influx of refugees mainly from South Sudan.

When Abwoyo was enrolled, she saw this as an opportunity to buy the critical stuff she lacked. With the first payment she received from EmpowerU Cash+, she bought saucepans worth Shs300,000 while she spent Shs180,000 of the second installment on buying serving dishes and a bucket making it possible for her to serve functions of at least 200 people.

“With this capacity, I have been able to get more business which has enabled me to buy extra buckets and serving dishes worth Shs180,000,” she says. “Because of this support from UNICEF, the value of my business assets is now Shs1.6m,” she reveals with a smile. “I belong to a savings scheme where I have saved Shs300,000,” she adds.

And she is not yet done. “I also have chicken and goats, which I buy and sell to my business enabling me to make more profits,” she explains. When she has functions of 200 people, she employs six other people to provide extra support. 

As for the children, she is not worried anymore about their school fees. “UNICEF has empowered me and I can save at least Shs100,000 every month and with that I can always be able to cater for the needs of the children,” she concludes.