 The more I travel to more destinations in Africa the more I discover that so many Africans are trying They are possible best to uplift their own and this are the things that give me joy man I have been here for the past two days and I found something interesting that is happening at the place that I'm staying Literally they got 11 rooms right which means the resort or the lodges not that big but The work that this resort is doing worth more than all the I mean major lodges or resort that I've slept in My name is Evelyn Habasur Radema found a ride for a woman an NGO that was set up to empower women Social and economically and we started small with Biscuits so that is where the name comes from ride for a woman We started with 14 but right now we have 54 women and these women are paid fed and they're given a drink They spend their day here doing the sewing and the basket weaving and one of the things that we are trying to do is to Make sure that at least every woman is empowered to have a coin or a donut in their pocket So that they're able to buy a few things for themselves What you've done is really commendable I mean when I came in here See when people start talking about foundations in Africa most of them are owned by I mean Not Africans But I was so inspired knowing what you're doing in here knowing that the person who is doing it looks like me The person who is doing it was born and raised in this village. I Think they don't know what I'm talking about, but I just want to give you a round of applause Will it true that you are born in this same village? Yes Yes, it is true Next time when you come I'll actually take it to my home so that you can take a video of where I was born and raised And where I still go to do some gardening How was life growing up from this village? Hard because I grew up there with my mother eight children. She used to wear one red dress So actually most people have been telling me to change the name from ride for a woman because I have to explain what Ride for a woman is because most people call it ride a woman and I'm like, no, there is the for their ride for a woman which is riding for a woman and So she's put on one red dress so people are like maybe you should call it one red dress project Because she's the reason why I started this project. Wow before she passed on I She wanted me to study all her dream was for her children to go to school So even what we were doing was she made sure that everyone those who didn't study like my other brothers is because They were insulted at school because we used to study when we are old even me. I started when I was a bit old so it was hard for us to go through that period but All at the end. She used to call women and she would tell them, you know what I Used to wear one red dress, but because of education Come and see my case. So what you can do? Make sure you eat less dress nothing, but take your children to school tomorrow. You will be different people But all she wanted was to set up a foundation for me to make sure I can come and start a project That was going to help the women So that is how I came up and I told her I had finished the university. I had a degree in tourism I had met a wonderful man I didn't want to go back to the village. There was no TV. There was no light You grew up with no light. Yes, there was no TV. No light. We used to have Not even candles. So we had small. I don't know if you have those in your village where you put paraffin So and you put lights like you put matches matches box That is what we used to you have so that was our condo that was our light So that is where I grew up from Even when I came to Kampala to study with my sister, I would still go back to that kind of life Even when I finished the university and I had to go and start this job That is the kind of life I went in there was no power and I was fine with it because Because I didn't grow up with TV. I had just seen it for some few years So it was fine for me to go back to where I came from through original roots and that is where we began from So we have 300 women registered with this NGO and we started with bicycles So our dream was to have two of us ride the bicycles Hiring them to empower women These 300 women are HIV women who are domestically abused single mothers and actually the widows That is the category of women for us who are looking That time when we registered The 300 they would have been even 500 We kept saying no no and you know at the end of the day we're like this is it we can't take more than 300 Now the hardest part was to begin everyone kept coming Uh-huh so you start and you know I'm from that village so everyone would come Evelyn Why did you call us we thought when you're calling us you already had an idea on how this whole thing is going to I'm like to be honest with you. We don't know we have the eight bicycles We want to train eight women who are going to be professional bike mechanics so that if we get people who hire them They can actually ride but if We can't do that Our goal was to have these women where they can be cancelled Where they can be talked to where they can you know learn a skill so that they also Have time to talk to each other heal each other You have seen the hills in this village This is a hill that these women climb every day to dig find food So for them finding a place Where they know they can also work and they call it a workplace Where they know they can be paid? I am telling if this organization closed down Many people would actually be affected. I think they would have trauma. So that is how we started so Walake that in 2011 is when I met a lady from Australia She was in windy To do gorilla tracking because Boma Wind is well known for gorilla tracking mountain. Yes. So after her gorilla tracking she wanted to buy african fabric. That's like And then she was taking small pieces two meters three meters four meters. I'm like, what are you going to use this for? She told me quilting I am glad I didn't know what quilting was because if I knew Then maybe this wouldn't have started. So she's like She explained she really saw I was not really getting there. She said do you have an email? I said yes I do so I gave her my email She took it sent me pictures of the quilts when I saw that I was like, this is nice if we started this I think this would help the women And then she was like really I said yes She's like now I can come and train women how to quilt Wow She organized that was patricia She got Jill and then she came with Kim and they started they had to learn How to use pedaling machines because they in windy we had no power So they had to find pedaling machines and they had to learn how to fix them They came they wanted 14 women out of 300 What pushed out some of these women was because they were not going to pay As you've seen these women depend on their own Hard work you have to dig to feed your family you have to dig to feed So there were like three weeks with no me digging no money. How am I going to actually Feed my family. They're like no so but the 60 the 14 understood what it means To have a skin we try to convince them would educate them and we didn't want to push them We said for you who will understand and you think it will help you come They were there for three weeks and this that is where we started the running from from the 14 women as I speak today We have 60 women the 60 women you've seen the names written on the path of you The reception all the names of the 60 women we wanted to put it there as a souvenir as something I've told you I would never do anything now Because seeing the happiness the joy of these women Is what makes me sleep so well And that is where we began from so from that we have gone into micro financing whereby we have over 200 women 250 women with the micro runs You didn't see a lady called annette. She's a single mother of three children She started with taking a loan of just 200 She bought chips or I would say potatoes She started making chips on the main road after paying the loan She got another one. She bought land after one. She got another one. She has now built a house of three rooms whereby she can actually have a home that she calls her home Where for her she says even if she dies now, she just wanted to have a place for her children She grew up in a domestic abused home her father had sold off everything So everyone had to struggle for themselves So she didn't want to leave her children Just like the way their mother and their father had left them. So that kind of stories we have many Now we have education for children because I believe If I wasn't educated, I wouldn't have come back. So we think with education It is the only way I can change my community So so far we have 143 children that are sponsored with different people that have come To ride for a woman and want to be part of the community Part of ride for a woman. We give purified water I am sure you've seen people wake up morning With jelly cans of water. It is open to the whole community Anytime you want water to drink you come. We use biosand. There's no chemical There's nothing actually when I go to campala It's so hard for me to get used to that water because I'm used to fresh and pure water So no nothing is added in. We have also given goats. So we looked at most communities in Africa They don't have emergency funds. So every time they have an emergency problem They will set off the plot. They will set off a little piece of their land So we said no this cannot be happening. So we started without on women So we have given to 99 families goats So that this goat you can actually After two years they would be like maybe five goats. Then you can sell one goat every time you have an emergency This year our dream is to have solar So the reason why I wanted solar was because of the education and there's no power So most families children don't read during night because there's nothing So when they give them their homework or they have holiday work They have to do it during the time but holiday time parents want the children to help them in the garden So we thought if we give solar so we want to go house every house Once we put solar we want five families to share So five families those are five children or maybe six But one of the things that I've been seeing if we do it is that if my child like my daughter is not good at math But your daughter could be good at math or your son So he will help each other to actually do the reading. So that is the other goal So our target is to maybe give 500 homes solars So if we do 500 times five five homes that will be over 200 and something So that is the kind of thing that we are trying to do Recently we got a donation of someone who gave us cars We want to start Taking my community members Especially the women that we work with and the children We want them to go to kase se and see How beautiful kase se is and how different it is from our village Most of these people have never gone beyond bohoma. So they don't know how other people work They don't know how other things look like they don't even know what really takes place So because we are born there you married there you educated there some of them are not educated So that has kept the village So we think by taking these children and these women to see better firms and better methods of farming Then they can actually come back and teach their neighbors and come come back and help their other community That is the kind of thing that we do and I've been very grateful because The reason why the bicycles didn't work out is I was fresh from campus One of the things we didn't put in consideration was the african roads Then the other was because I didn't have anyone to market me I didn't have anyone to you know to run to to believe in what i'm doing But i'm glad even when we started struggling people have come on board We have different companies that have come we have utb we have ua we have different Tour companies we have different Individuals that have come to ride for women and generalists that have believed in what we are seeing just going there and looking at these women Working alone these women whenever they're there we pay them and we feed them and give them a drink So those are some of the things that when you come in and you see You're like you know what I want to be part of this and I'm calling upon everyone who can be part of this to make Africa a different place to make Africa Uganda a better Uganda a better Africa. I'm sure we can if we can drain hands Before I used to be renting off bikes Now it's a it's a it's a lodge right? How did that come into existence? Okay so Because of the women who are domestically abused we wanted women to be sleeping at the lodge So those rooms were actually initially for women who are domestically abused to come in and shelter them But because like I've told you this is a small village everyone knows the other It was hard to maintain the women the families would still come in the angry husbands would still come in So we agreed with the donor that we use those rooms As a accommodation and then 50 percent of the money that we collect From those rooms goes to help women who are domestically abused. So that is how it came in But we still do renting bicycles So when you come in Buhoma and you've done yogurt tracking you can always book and have an extra day Have you seen The designs in the room It's like everything is afrocentric and this was done by the women You see this You see even your mosquito nets you got an African touch Thus Your bird duvet got African touch your pillows got African touch and this were done by the women that lives in here Take a look at this don't tell me this is not crazy So which means when guests comes here they help Yeah, sometimes we Our guests who can wish to donate to give something for the women. Okay. Yeah So like this building was donated by one of the american Royals So he had to donate it to support the women. That's awesome, right? This is why We as Africans needs to come together to support our own believe me. I never knew something like this exists And i'm so glad that I came here so This is how the room looks like The bed Good What has been the major challenge that he faces since started this journey The major challenge as always has been capital because It is pressure. It's overwhelming the number of people that come to us For help like I have told you some of these women the testimony they always gave is like Knowing that I am coming to work Recently one of the women stood up and said, you know when we are here. We have our peace The moment we walk out of the gate We feel like we are now going back to problems. My husband stood up. He said no I don't want you to say that I want you to have the peace that you have here Color it with you and take it home so that you can also change home So that is the kind of thing. So we always have more people coming like right now I need almost $2,500 every month that is just basically salary to pay these women That is minus the food. So if we don't have cells You saw a shop. So we depend on tourists coming and buying the items So we are thinking maybe we need to have online shopping So that we can create but you know when you're growing up there are many challenges Then we need to hire the technician So when you look and you can't get someone who is very cheap Actually do the social media for you. So those are some of the things my husband helps me to do Part of that. So we had to share roles is very organized with office work And management. So I'm very good at public creations and then also part of the Administration. So that is what we do. So we try to balance in the evening. I'll be like oh, Dennis I met Sun so so we need to keep in touch. Please. This is the card or I'll be tomorrow. I will mind him. Did you write or no if I have sometimes with my whatsapp So in the evening when I relax, I'm like, okay now it's time for me to say hi Thank you for coming to support. So, you know, like we try to do this ourselves But if we could get people who can come in and volunteer and maybe Train some of our stuff. We have very good stuff Even when we are not there, I am not worried because I know they will do Exactly what we have taught them because I did tourism. He did development studies. So development studies is more like developing a community One thing that I love is to give A tour is an experience experience that will stay within you. So I try my best. Sometimes people think We have a lot to waste. I tell them no I would never sell coffee at my place. I'll never sell tea I'll never say the cookie or a small donut or popcorns It is an experience you give someone tea because that is how I was brought up I was brought up in a home as much as it was poor It was welcoming at one time before my dad died He phoned people sleeping in the shed They were over 60 people. We had a house over just two rooms And you know, like a sitting room, you know, african average family houses So he was from drinking and when he saw them And he was like, where are you coming from at this time? And then they tell him who are from kihihi kihihi is about 56 kilometers They had walked 56 kilometers So they were resting in bohoma and they were going to cross the forest to the other sector So my dad was like, no, please I have a small house, but in africa we say a house is never small. It is the hearts that are always small So if our hearts are big enough, we'll all fit in my house. So he At around 10 we had my dad knock. I was late. I was about six years But I still remember because some of the things I don't remember but I remember a bit We saw people enter the house. The line was not ending. The house was already full But people were still coming in I remember that time it was already 10 people had to get those small torches To go to the banana plantation to cut my toke. They started peeling to prepare food The men went to collect the water. They boiled for them to, you know, You know, try to massage their feet Shower so that tomorrow some of those people who are still there Up to now whenever they cross the forest, they always look for a family It's not about being rich you can be poor But you still have you still have the reach in your heart to help someone to change their lives To make a difference in someone's life What kind of support that you need from us? Every kind of support I've told people and this I would always say I've always told people it's not about money. They will give you billions of money and to be useless I still need more brains We have been running this organization me and my husband But most of the things that we do has been people like you that come and say if I think you Pushed it so much here. You need to be online. You need to do this I we need more brains to come on to this organization to make it a better place So that tomorrow in Uganda we have very many National parks so that this can be done in every national park So many people have come to me to go and do it in other parks and I'm like hold on I am already carrying enough burden. I can't add on another park What I always tell them is like, please go and start I'll come in and train I'll come in and help I always tell them start small keep growing This is how we started we started small and we kept growing so any kind of support It can be an idea. It can be money It can be volunteering to do the marketing to put up on so many social media That is even better than giving me money because I know then money will actually come in So anything that anyone thinks when you go to our website that you can do to improve The organization to improve the lives of the women To improve the lives of the children one of the things that we did recently Is to start an organization for men and the men want it called ride for we ride for men because We realized that when we started this organization domestic violence is usually due to lack of money lack of food in most of the African countries When a woman is working so hard and the money is drinking you come home You want food and you didn't even give the women food So at the end of the day she will answer you badly and because you already have the influence of the alcohol Then you end up actually fighting So now we have tried the 70 men that we have We said not drinking if you want to drink you're not in this group And these men don't drink because they want they are drinking because They don't have what to do. They are not educated They have no one wants to employ an educated man. So they have lost They have lost Their esteem they feel like Their world is gone for them. So the best way is to find it in drinking alcohol Finally say to africans watching us right now I would want to say I don't I am proud to be an african and I am proud to be a Ugandan Especially to be born in windy And I want to tell everyone Your destiny is not in being in a rich family. No It is not being in a poor family. No, it is what you can actually make it to be You can choose to be a happy person or you can choose to be a miserable person but every time You have something and you want to share it with someone Please do One thing that I do is I stopped being selfish As much as I can I want to share what I have It can be joy. That is where we go wrong. We always think money is the best thing to give out No, you can share with me your testimony that will change my life forever That will make me a better person tomorrow So please we can join together as africans. We can join together as Ugandan and I'm so Proud and happy to have met you. Thank you so much for being here this evening to give me your time And please Me and my husband, we are still inviting you to come. I'll be back so that we can take you to some of these homes I want you to get the testimonies yourself Not me speaking these women speaking someone else would interpret not me So then you can actually get to see what we are talking about my final question How do you feel when you see the impact that you've made in this woman's life? Very proud, but all this I wouldn't have done it alone This has been possible People have believed in me and that has been my humbling way that I have never written a proposal I speak and people believe in what I'm saying I talk and people believe in what I am and they see on the ground I am telling you oh, I've never put money in marketing every time utb has Any journalist they will come Any guide any tourist anyone that knows ride for woman if they have a client and they think this client is going to add An impact on ride for woman. They will come to ride for woman So I wouldn't say it has been me and my husband. No this has been possible because of people like you that come to us I want to say thank you so much for talking to me and I'm inspired by your story After talking to you. I feel like going back to my village and also starting something I mean, that's what is running through my mind right now. Please do because I was I was a part of you I think I will need your expertise. Thank you so much and I really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you