The hunger project’s community education programs and the economic empowerment of women in the Wakiso Epicentre

Abstract

The study analysed community education of The Hunger Project and the economic empowerment of women in the Wakiso Epicentre. Empowerment is one of the development outcomes that are pursued by NGOs. The third UN -MDG has emphasised empowerment of women. The microfinance program of The Hunger Project has economic empowerment of women as its major aim. The study sought to understand how and whether the community education as offered to the women in the Wakiso epicentre had economically empowered them. In particular, the study used transformative learning as its theory on community education process. The study used qualitative approach with in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and documentary sources. The findings suggested that the women involved in the microfinance programme of the Hunger Project had been economically empowered as individuals (Individual empowerment) but this had not been translated into community empowerment. The women involved in this program were significantly different from those who were not involved in it. The outstanding merits of the program were Vision Commitment and Action, training, women as change agents and conscientisation. The study recommends that The Hunger Project follows all steps of empowerment in which a community is led through all the five steps of empowerment with the climax being social change for the empowerment that is authentic and complete. The project should also set up collaborative relationships with other organizations in the community in order to address the needs of the community that are out of its jurisdiction. The Hunger Project can also train existing animators and give them incentives to expand their reach there by resulting in exponential growth in THP’s penetration; develop an improved ability to credibly measure and report impact and sustainability of improvements over time and the Vision Commitment and Action workshops to mobilize partners to get into organized groups and merge land or secure land from government.