JENGA women's groups were begun in Mooni, in conjunction with the water project in this area, to educate the women about safe drinking water.
Women have a key role in being able to create change in the community.
Formal school education is still denied to many girls and so the women come to the groups with a real thirst for knowledge.
Traditionally women are the ones responsible for the home and raising of children and much of what they learn in the JENGA groups affects the their families as well as their own lives.
Women from Doko cell Women's Group, Namatala perform a drama about malaria.
Women in Mooni recieve mosquito nets after completing their training module on malaria.
Mosquito nets are one of the effective components in preventing malaria.
Many women's groups are finding ways of creating some income. Women in Doko, Namatala, make handcrafts.
The women are re-discovering skills and sharing them with each other.
An example of some of the baskets made by the women.
Tablecloths made by women from Doko, Namatala.
Lornah Wamimbi (JENGA field worker for women's ministry, seen on the right) presents a certificate to one of the women of Namatala at the Graduation Ceremony 2006.
The Christmas Graduation Party is a time for the women to celebrate all they have achieved throughout the year in their groups.
It is a time for singing and dancing.
There is great variety in the dancing as the women of Namatala come from many different tribes.
The women of Mooni also have a Graduation Party each December.
Here the women of Bubetsye performed a dramatic song showing all they had learned about HIV and AIDS.
Following a training module on HIV/AIDS all the women were given the opportunity to be tested.
Staff from Joy Hospice, a health clinic in Mbale which JENGA partners with, came to the groups to do the tests.
A second round of testing was carried out early in 2007. (JM)
Women from the Bubetsye group in Mooni register for their tests.(JM)
Between September 2006 and March 2007 JENGA has supported 600 HIV tests. (JM)
(JM)
Those who are HIV positive are then assisted to register with The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) who continue with counselling, treatment and support. JENGA sent two of its staff on TASO's 6 month counselling course and so they are also able to regularly follow up the women who are HIV positive.(JM)
Preparing for a test. (JM)
Ouch!! (JM)
50 out of 600 tests were positive, giving a prevelance of 8.3%, higher than the national average(JM)
The tests were offered to women from the JENGA groups who had attended the education sessions on HIV and AIDS and a small number of their husbands also came to be tested. (JM)
There is much myth and stigma around HIV and AIDS here, so the fact that such a high number of voluntary tests were carried out shows the difference made by the education programme which was run in the groups. (JM)
A chart from literacy training is in the background of this photo. This is led in Mooni by another NGO. JENGA is making arrangments for a literacy programme in Namatala. (JM)
The Women's Groups in Mooni and Namatala are visited regularly by one of JENGA's partners, Family Planning Association Uganda (FPAU) who provide education, advice, contraception and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.(JM)
JENGA makes every effort to encourage all women to attend the groups and to be aware that although we are a Christian organisation the groups are not exclusively for Christians. This is in line with JENGA's code of conduct which states that aid and practical assistance is given regardless of the race, creed or religious belief of the recipient and that aid will not be manipulated to be dependent on the adherence of the recipients to our Christian beliefs.The majority of the people of Mooni are Muslim. The groups have a reputation for bringing unity amongst women from different faiths and tribes. (JM)
The women of Namatala and Mooni do a vast amount of physical work, frequently carrying heavy loads over long distances and adopting postures like this during domestic and agricultural work.
One of JENGA's volunteers, a physio from the UK, led some back care sessions in the Women's groups. The women have eagerly adopted the advice and exercises, resulting in new patterns of working and reports of reduced back pain.
The women in Mooni's groups have an on-going stove making programme supported by JENGA. These stoves have a number of benefits, being fuel efficient and with a contained fire reducing the number of burns.
