Namutebi Uritah

Uritah is a 60-year-old widow with six grown children, and four grandchildren who live with her. Before joining Rooted Wisdom, she supported herself by managing a few local pigs and chickens. Her children would send her small sums of money when they could, though it was never sufficient to meet all of the family’s needs. Uritah worked in her garden every day to provide her family with something to eat, and sold the little that was left over to try to buy soap and other basic necessities. Uritah always felt that she had a lot of potential but lacked the knowledge and training necessary to grow her business and better support her family.

Then, Uritah joined Rooted Wisdom in 2015 and received one piglet through a program that aims to increase parents’ income to facilitate paying for their children’s school fees. Seeing Uritah’s diligence and commitment through this project, Rooted Wisdom gave her a second project with three additional piglets a year later. Since then, her pig business has grown to nearly 100 pigs. Selling these pigs for income, Uritah has earned over $1,709! She was able to pay for her daughter’s surgery and medications, finance and construct the pigsty and chicken house, and pay her grandchildren’s school fees, all while still saving money for the future. Rooted Wisdom partnered again with Uritah in 2017, providing her with the seeds of poultry and mango tree businesses. Although she received just 10 chickens initially, Uritah used a local hatching method learned through an Rooted Wisdom workshop and has expanded her business to 45 chickens (and expects her first mango harvest in December!). Uritah went on to join Rooted Wisdom’s Community Development Associations (CDA) program in 2018, learning improved agricultural methods such as crop production, livestock and business planning, and management, and was able to increase her crops using a method of intercropping she learned in the program.