DAY THREE WAS MUWALA MULUNGI DAY!
Muwala Mulungi, translated as Beautiful Girls in Luganda, is an empowerment program working with young women in the various slums of Kampala. It is led by Lydia Mukwhana, an amazing woman! This program empowers young women by providing them with life skills, hands-on training (such as jewelry making, catering, hairdressing, tailoring, and soap making), mental health counseling, and reproductive health counseling. The young women served by this program are vulnerable young women who have lost hope, who have been forced to drop out of school, and who may be young single mothers. They have lost faith in themselves and believe they won’t amount to anything because of the situations they have been in (i.e., sexual abuse, assault, physical abuse, etc.). Muwala Mulungi exists to let these young women know there is a new path for them. Lydia and her team guide them, restore their hope, teach them to believe in themselves again, help them realize their potential, and show them that they are loved and beautiful, as their Creator made them.
Since 2019, Muwala Mulungi has worked in 4 different slums and graduated 70 young women from its program. Not only are they impacting the lives of these young women they are impacting these communities as well. The current slum is Mbuya where there is a large population of young mothers. As a result, they have added a teacher to their team who is able to lead the young children in school lessons while the mothers receive training. We were able to visit on a day when school was in session and the young women were participating in their second hairdressing training. We were also able to provide a hot meal.
I vividly remember walking away from this program with pure joy in my heart having just witnessed incredible work and impact. I was so impressed with Muwala Mulungi and I can sincerely say it was one of the biggest highlights of my trip.
HAIRDRESSING TRAINING AND THE YOUNG WOMEN AND CHILDREN ATTENDING MUWALA MULUNGI IN THE MBUYA SLUM
LUNCH AND SCHOOL FOR THE CHILDREN
