Tales from the field

By Birungi Beatrice-Kyegegwa District

Many times we miss the story especially when we don’t reach out to the person we are reporting about and whose voice we intend to amplify. Getting the story right may require us to prepare, do research, plan the time and period with our targeted audience.

The number of young mothers has tremendously increased of late in Kyegegwa District, many of them came from distant districts in search of fields to work on, and you can imagine the stories they will eagerly share with you. During the season time they toil to dig the land expecting to gain. But how much do they go through before the harvest? As media we ask ourselves, do they really gain?  Do they make their own decisions to sell, do they even know about the right markets? Do they have access to the right customer, or do they end up in tears after the harvest?  

In response to the above questions a few months ago, I happened to meet Mama Charity in the garden during harvest time. Mama Charity is a young mother of about 17 years. She had been blessed with a baby girl whom she got by caesarian. She dropped out of school while she was in primary five due to lack of school fees. She later got engaged with a young man and they started a new life. The young man was also a school dropout and still living at his parents’ home.

 ‘’The work became too much for me because I had to look after the entire family as young as I was. Taking on the house chores became too exhausting and yet I had to prepare the land for the coming season”, she narrates. “I wondered whether I could ably handle the responsibilities” she lamented. On whether men do help their wives during such conditions, Mama Charity said,’’ it is true some men help their wives but others don’t because that is what they have seen since they were born. Men are used to being served all the time,’’ On whether she harvested and sold her produces, she said that most men take the responsibilities at harvest time and some will spend the money on alcohol. ‘’We are still young to decide.’’ she commented!

And whether she has aired such views on any media, she was just overwhelmed to have narrated her story with the person from the media for the first time. ‘’For us we listen to the radio and that is all, we don’t even know how it operates.’’ She said.

Sometimes I wish I could make some decisions or have a say when it comes to the finances at home. See I and my husband work together many times but some other times I go in the field without him.  Charity recently lost her baby because she couldn’t access medication. They had realized that they had got pregnant again so soon and as if the situation had not settled in their hearts, they realized they were losing the child. She couldn’t get to hospital because the husband thought that she would pull through it and besides they had no money on them because the man had lost all of it in one of his gambling schemes. She had not got enough time to learn about family planning. And so she had little knowledge about what to do while still breast feeding. The husband was on many occasions on the run having made several foes whom he now owed money. It’s a miracle that she survived the ordeal and is now able to continue with her work in the field, the only thing she know how to do well. 

As media women, we still need to do a lot more to assist families with important information regarding health, finances among other area which will improve their social wellbeing in their communities and marriages.  The question remains whether we can reach every corner, how we can create awareness on different issues which affect our societies. Can we bring all the sectors on board? Is there a way we can network with the entire communities in Uganda?