Difficulties with the Katabi River

A story of Local Response from Katabi community, Uganda by Jessica

Difficulties with the Katabi River

Cossy stood in front of the whole group telling the story of the Katabi Elderly Association. The group had drawn a river representing the challenges and victories achieved by them throughout the years. The project began in 2008. The group decided to invest money and plant mushrooms to then sell at the market. The first batch worked well and they were happy with the results. Soon after they began again but the seeds were faulty. To their surprise and dismay all their investment was lost. This was a difficult moment of stress, they had all lost their money.

Where I come from, in these moments of difficulty, many turn to let out their distress by attacking others. Anger is easily accessed and too often people say things they would normally never say and then either give up on the project or come back to it with hurt feelings and great difficulty.

But in Katabi they just accepted what had happened as a fact of life, took a deep breath and went on to find a new project, a new objective and new place to invest their hope and energy. They decided to make soap and from there grew bigger and bigger inserting new projects within their association, learning from each other and becoming more self-sufficient.

When our group was positive and constructive in the most difficult situations, we delivered new and unexpected out comes and our group became stronger and more resilient.