A Lucky Chance

We all know how hard it is for single parents to raise their children and provide them with a stable home. Now, imagine being a single mother in a culture that actively punishes those in their position. All across Uganda, single mothers not only struggle with holding jobs to provide for their children, but poor nutrition and the lack of medical care can lead to severe illnesses that could lead to death. Unfortunately, there is a much more negative stigma associated with single mothers in Uganda, due to strict gender expectations and cultural norms, preventing them from holding a stable job or getting the proper medicine they need for themselves and their children. 

However, A young woman named Chance did not let these stigmas block her from achieving her own success and providing a better life for her family. Through hard work, study, and resilience, Chance overcame impossible odds to pursue her dream career, even with cultural barriers and economic hardship working against her. 

A resident of Uganda, Chance discovered her passion for tailoring at a young age. She wanted to open her own independent tailoring company, so she dropped out of school after completing her Senior 4 education to focus on business endeavors. In 2022, Chance established her own tailoring business, but she needed to improve her entrepreneurial skills and expand her knowledge of customer relations to promote her business. Chance couldn’t continue school so she began a partnership with Asante Africa and the “Teach A Man To Fish” community learning group to continue educating herself and grow her entrepreneurship knowledge. She also received lots of support and encouragement from the Nyarukoma Community Learning Group. 

Chance’s further pursuit of her education would turn out to be the right move. Her tailoring business became a huge success, providing the means to give her a much more stable home. By cultivating maize crops for clothing material, Chance has raised a total of 2,000,000 Ugandan Shillings. She plans to use these gains to transform her independent retail business into a large-scale entrepreneurial operation. 

In a country where women in her situation are at risk of poverty, disease, and even death, Chance refused to be denied the chance to pursue her passion and  provide a better life for her and her daughter. Chance’s success shows the transformative impact that even the most disenfranchised can achieve by staying true to their goals and fervently pursuing their dreams. It’s not “Luck” that led to Chance’s successes, it’s determination, hard work, and a little bit of opportunity. 

WRITTEN BY: By Grant Pierce