Market Women in Uganda Celebrate International Women’s Day

The commemoration of International Women’s Day this year was under the global theme “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” organised by the Institute of Social Transformation (IST) Uganda. This activity was moderated by IST, who engaged the market women in English and the local language Luganda. The vibrant engagement allowed Ugandan market women an opportunity to celebrate their important role as the bread basket of Uganda.This IWD event was unique in that while it was a celebratory event with speeches and awareness raising, it also gave an opportunity for market women to access essential health services which included; HIV testing and counselling, cervical cancer screening and family planning services.

 IST Uganda is a UN Women implementing partner whose work cuts across Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) and Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG). In this commemorative engagement, awareness raising dialogues were held for market women at Kalerwe Market, Kampala. Sessions were held engaging market women on their rights from sexual reproductive health rights, business opportunities, taxation rights. Throughout the day, sessions were led engaging them on their rights. The Kamwokya Christian Caring Community led a sensitization on non-communicable diseases, HIV/AIDs testing and counselling. A sensitization on SRHR was led by the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD). Sensitization on taxation regimes, advocating to reduce the unfair tax burden on women, was led by SEATINI. The market community interacted on HIV/AIDs prevention while testing and counselling concurrently took place on sight.  Attending the event were leaders in the market space as well as market women vendors, UN Women representatives, civil society, and health service providers.

 This event was important as it brought services directly to the women. This is key because they often cannot leave the workspace due to their workload combined with unpaid care work duties. 104 of the market women in attendance registered for SRHR and other health services, including cervical cancer screenings and contraception consultations. Bringing the health services directly to these busy women allowed them to sign up for essential health services such as cervical cancer screenings, antenatal care and HIV testing among others.  where remarks were shared by the Market Chairperson who encouraged IST to keep bringing such health services to the market community, followed by the Executive Director of IST Uganda Moureen Wagubi.

 Moureen shared: “We heard a testimony from market women who have worked in the market for over 8 years that this was their first time to access health services. Our role is to ensure that we extend these services to other markets in Kampala and the country at large. We acknowledge that health contributes to business performance for women.” With the support of UN Women, IST Uganda engages market women through economic empowerment, promoting them in leadership and ending all forms of violence. This project is supported by Sweden and began in 2016.