Selina 38 is from Wera community. She joined the RTM Adult literacy class in December 2011. She was, by all standards, a poor person hardly having enough to feed alone let alone dressing. She lived in a traditional hut which shared with her husband and sizable number of children. Despite their impoverished state, they owned customary land like every one else in the village.
With their illiterate background, education of their own children was a luxury. They preferred that children be involved in hunting and garden work rather than waste time at school. Their first born daughter got married at 15 compounding the degree of ignorance in the family. The second born equally joined the trend of child marriage. To the parents, this was a blessing.
When she joined Adult Literacy program in Wera, Selina found it interesting and pressed on to graduate in knowing how to read and write. It is from here that she learnt the importance of education.
After graduation in 2012, she was very zealous to educate her children. She applied for a loan from Micro loan scheme and hired ten acres of land for upland rice. The rice did well and earned her good money which she saved and bought a cow. Part of the money she took her four children to school. She got her second loan and hired land for tomato growing. What she planted yielded well. She looked for a better market in Soroti town. She acquired land out of the money she got from her tomato harvest. This was a step of success.
Selina is now doing several activities in her land such as rearing animals; she now has two cows, local birds and also focuses on crop growing to support her children at school.
Her plan this year is to put up a permanent house and this to her is very possible now that she does not rent the land for farming. Macro- loan and literacy has fully impacted the life of her family.