Access to Rural Non-Farm Livelihoods - Natural Resources Institute

Box 17. Mary Opus, Traditional Birthing Attendant
Mary is 46 years old, and a widow. She lives with eight of her children, five of whom are
adults, and two of her grandsons, sons of two of the daughters. Although only formally
educated to P1, Mary is a trained TBA. She was originally trained by her mother, who also
practised traditional midwifery, but in the early 1990s she was identified as a “good”
traditional practitioner, and given “official” training in Masaka, and certified. She buys rubber
gloves, cotton wool, bedding, etc. from the hospital in Rakai, spending about 50,000 shillings
per quarter on materials and transport. Women come long distances for her services as she is
the only officially trained and certified TBA in the area. She charges 1,000 shillings for a
basic antenatal check-up, and 5,000 shillings to stay for delivery. However, as women often
do not bring essential commodities such as soap or paraffin, she has provide these, so her
profit is very little, perhaps only 5,000 shillings per quarter. She needs more bedding in
particular, but lacks the money – once, in 1990, she received a blanket from the Kitovu
Catholic Mission’s Community Based Health Care Programme, but otherwise, she has
received no operational support from any government or NGO programmes. She would also
like to build a separate building for the women to deliver in, as currently the women stay in
the children’s room, and then the children have to sleep elsewhere. Mary’s work as a TBA is
supported in part by making and selling baskets. She is a member of the Kitambuza Women’s
Group 108 but also works on her own making fancy multi-coloured baskets for decoration for
sale to well off women in the village. This work is highly skilled, and supply is limited in
relation to demand, in contrast to that for the more utilitarian baskets made by the group and
others. Mary works and sells quickly, sometimes making and selling as many as 20 baskets in
a month. She could make even more if she could invest in more raw materials, but she has
many other demands on her resources. Some of the other members of the group are jealous of
her skills and her extra -group activity, but others feel that handicrafts are somewhat tiresome
and take too long for too little reward 109 and thus have nothing against her working for herself
as well. Mary’s adult children all farm, including growing coffee for sale. Mary used to farm
too, but has had to stop as she had an operation last year and can no longer do heavy physical
work. She also used be a coffee buyer in season, working for traders who came to Lwentulege
and gave her money to go from farm to farm buying coffee, but again, has had to stop as a
result of her health. She would like to start trading in second hand clothes, but is lacking
capital. She sees her household as “poor”, because it is so big – if it was smaller, they would
be better off. Although she had already started diversifying her activities, having her operation
and being unable to do heavy physical work has further encouraged her to investigate nonfarm
opportunities.
The services of a trained TBA are clearly very valuable to a community, and such a person is
likely to have considerable social capital. In the case above, this is even more likely, as she
makes very little money from her midwifery.
There is also a bar in the village.
Box 18. Joan Scanda, bar owner
Joan is 24 years old, and has two children, aged two and three. Her husband was a fisherman,
but caught malaria out on the lake and died a year ago, leaving her a widow, with 30,000
shillings of “fish” money. Friends advised her to open a bar, so she returned to Kitambuza,
her home area, and spent the money renting a building (which is also their home), and buying
a radio, batteries, and tonto. She now spends about 40,000 shillings (~US$ 22) per week on
tonto, as well as smaller amounts on enguli (locally distilled spirits), batteries for the radio,
paraffin, and rent, but is able to make a profit of about 30,000 shillings per week . She has
problems with childcare, as well as the occasional drunk customer, but the business “earns a
living” – she is now building her own home, although as a widow she has had to hire a man to
work for her, and thus work stops when she has no spare money.
108 See Box 14.
109 These may continue to participate in the group for its social functions.
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