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| Nsangi Ahmad Hassan |
Nsangi Ahmad Hassan’s Northern Uganda
home will be filled with holiday cheer this season because of a Canadian
Co-operative Association-supported co-operative. The income he has earned from
the co-op’s sale of bricks and fish will allow him to buy a dress for his wife
for Christmas. The 28-year-old can’t remember the last time he purchased a gift
for the mother of his three young children - twin five-year-old girls and a three-year-old
girl. “In the African culture it is
really a very, very bad thing not to please your wife.” He began setting aside
money six months ago and looks forward to the day when he will have enough
savings to take her to the shop and have her pick out the dress he will
buy.
The Bomido co-op is the first of a
number of community-led enterprises we will visit over the next two weeks as
part of our educational study mission to Africa. I am one of eight co-operators
from across Canada who will be capturing in words and photos the people behind
these collectives.
Hassan is among the young Ugandans who
have discovered the power of belonging to a member-owned rural producer
organization. They share in the proceeds from a fishing and brick making co-op
near the town of Macinda. Working together, they have created jobs for
themselves and better lives for them and their families. “It means a lot to me,”
said Hassan of the democratically-run business. “Education is a long-term
investment.”
Before the co-op was formed, Hassan
was “home starving with a diploma in administration.” He had worked on a road
construction project as a security guard but when the road was completed he was
out of a job.
Hassan said joining the co-op has
“improved the standard of living” for him and his family. In fact, it has
generated enough revenue that he has begun construction of a new home for his
wife and three children. Only one room is completed, which serves as temporary
living quarters for the five-member Hassan
household.
Still, for the first time in several
years, that small single room will be the site of a very merry Christmas for the
Hassans.
Rayanne Brennan
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