News & Stories
News Updates:
This December edition brings together stories from the field in Uganda alongside findings from community-led research designed to better understand local needs, lived realities, and aspirations. Inside, we share recent program updates, reflections from community members, and insights drawn from data that is helping guide our approach to sustainable, locally informed impact.
Published: 30 December 2025
Our January edition reflects on a month marked by national elections and the disruptions that followed, including power outages and communication shutdowns that directly affects work on the ground. We share what this period revealed about daily life for the women we serve, from housing and food insecurity to the resilience required to run a small business in uncertain conditions. Inside, you’ll find updates from our monthly gatherings, where women continue learning from one another, and read a powerful testimony of growth and renewed hope.
Published: 31 January 2026
Our February edition looks at how skills and opportunity can spread beyond one entrepreneur and into the wider community. We share highlights from a special monthly gathering where women invited friends from their communities to learn practical skills in soap making, bookkeeping, and marketing. We also explore why access to small amounts of capital matters for women-owned businesses and celebrate one of our entrepreneurs as the first recipient of our Monthly Business Growth Award following the expansion of her firewood business.
Published: 28 February 2026
Published: 20 April 2026
Entrepreneur Stories:
Sylvia
Firewood Supplier
Sylvia was splitting and selling firewood to support her family. She kept the firewood in her home to sell to neighbors and restaurants.
When local factories offered her the ooportunity to supply them, she could not afford the stock needed to fulfill their orders. The bank would not lend to her without her husband’s involvement.
HOHA gave Sylvia a loan to meet this demand. She has since grown from selling small bundles from her home to supplying factories across her town, moving around six truckloads of firewood each week.
Lydia
Hair Dresser
Lydia, a young mother from a remote village in Eastern Uganda, once dreamed of being a teacher. Family hardship forced her to drop out of school but she learned to braid hair and began a small business washing and braiding hair in her community. She had a skill and a small business but no savings to grow.
Through HOHA, she received skills training, joined a savings group, and was given a start-up loan to grow her salon in the village center.
Lydia now uses her success to hire and train other young women in her village, sharing the skills that helped move her forward.
