Mariam, with her trainee turned employee, Nakato, has set up two Tailoring Shops in Nakaloke and Nkoma near Mbale in Eastern Uganda They specialise in ladies fashion and the dress which women want in a Muslim community, but they take any work on. A recent order for seventy uniforms for a band came through and to meet the deadline all the teenage girls came into the shop to help. Schools had been closed since last year because of Covid so these young girls wanted to work to make use of their time and they are all learning.
But in Uganda the schools are just starting to open again with 1st March as the start date for some year groups, with more to follow on 12th April, 19th April, 5th June and 18th June when all classes will be back, The hope is that September will be a restart for everyone all at once.
Mariam has a particular interest in helping teenage girls access education with fourteen girls on her list. Half the girls are aged 16 to 18 and in the third year of secondary school and the rest are younger primary school children. She recently called together the parents of the girls so as to discuss the return to school and how to share the cost of the fees without trying to depend entirely on outside donors which is an unsustainable approach.
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