Jam

This month we started making Jam again. It's mango season so we have been concentrating on the mango and papaya jam as the mango season doesn't last for long. We have had to buy glass jars to help with the packaging as its been going off in the plastic jars. Its been expensive to buy them which has resulted in not much profit, I will have to see if I can import the jars to make it cheaper.

The jam is really tasty and people seem to like it, it means now we have to find a market so that we can get it sold, which is actually quite difficult and has made me quite nervous. I decided to print my own labels for now as you need to buy properly printed labels in bulk to keep the cost low I designed the labels and printed them from home, which is ok for now.

We also have made a few pineapple, mango and papaya jams which have also turned out well. We have a company that has three lodges who would like to buy the jam but we need more to sustain the ladies cooking it.

Mama Namuya who is in the picture in the right has been cooking the bread and now helping with the jam, she has been doing so well and I am really impressed in the change in her life, everyday she is becoming more responsible and happier. She comes everyday to work and thats a great improvement. She has spent many years walking the streets of town begging at car windows and people passing buy, drunk most of the day, dirty with no respect for herself and constantly fighting with her friends. And now reguarly at work, she is hardworking, dresses smarlty and looks clean. She no longer goes down to the streets of Kampala begging.

The otherday she came in the evening on a sunday and saw me just starting to cook a big batch of Jam, she was complaining how her feet and ankles were swollen as she had been working so hard, and how her body hurt so much. When she was to go home she couldn't, she stood in the kitchen watching me and told me in half swahili and broken luganda how her heart is unable to see me working so hard that she must help but she is so tired. She stood for so long struggling with the thought of helping, untill she sent me away to rest and took on a large amount of cooking. Finishing at 9.30 pm.

The last time we tried to start selling Jam we had quite a number of ladies helping, but this time i decided to to just bring in one lady at a time. So after Mama Namuya had learnt how to cooked Jam well I called Mama Enoko to help. Last time she worked for us she was quite difficult lady leaving me with no hope that she would really adjust to working with in a real job. We felt we should give her another chance. I dont know what has happened but, she came back with a different attitude, apparently for over a month she hasn't been drinking. She has been coming to work clean and dressed well, she has been focused and working hard, cooking bread and jam on the days when Mama Namuya has been away sick. I am a bit shocked to see such a change, and I am please to see her becoming so responsible.

Our Jam making this time has been sucessful and has been tasty so far. My hope now is that we can sell it well, so that we can give these street ladies and many more a job and security, so that they may no longer walk the streets of Kampala. So that we can help them leave drugs and alcohol, encouraging them to be respectful of themselves and others.

Mamma Namuya is Namuya, Nangiro, and Lizzie's mother, and Mamma Enoko is Enoko's mother , the children we care for.