By Carol Musoke
September 11, 2025

Jessica Nini lives in the village of Agereger in Willa sub county, Uganda. Like many women in her community, Jessica depended on what her husband earned as a farmer to care for her family. And like other farming families, Jessica’s was struggling to meet their basic needs. “In the past, we women survived as receivers only from our husbands and not as breadwinners for our family, and crop farming has become difficult due to climate change,” shares Jessica. “We completely depended on our husbands to struggle to provide everything for us and our children.”

Then, through World Renew and local partner Pentecostal Assemblies of God North Teso, Jessica had the opportunity to attend a training session on starting a small business using staple food crops. Jessica and the other participants learned about roasting, frying, and baking products that use soya beans and salted peanuts. They learned how to make nut paste out of peanuts and daddies (a sweet fried flour treat), and about frying cassava and potato chips. The women also learned how to market and sell their products at the local trading centre, at community schools, retail shops, and the town council. Jessica soon became the leader of ten women who set out to start a small business using their newfound knowledge.

In early May 2023, Jessica participated in an exchange visit to a training centre in another community. She came back with additional skills and knowledge on baking bagiya (steamed dumplings) made from soya beans and learned how to make doughnuts, chapati, and daddies using processed flour made from orange flesh sweet potatoes, cassava flour, and other staples like green grams, cowpeas, millet, and sorghum. “We now supply our products to retail shops in Willa, Obalanga, and Kuju sub counties,” says Jessica. “In Amuria, we supply God’s Wish supermarket, Ore supermarket, Save More supermarket, and eight other retail shops,” shares one group member.

Initially, the group was making profits of UGX 50,000 to UGX 70,000 per week ($20 to 28 CAD), but with persistence and hard work, they have increased production and extended their market base and are now making profits averaging UGX 300,000 ($120 CAD) per week.

“We also agreed to start a piggery project and bought four piglets at UGX 65,000 ($26 CAD) per piglet. And we have decided as a group to start our own goat project—we plan to purchase a goat for each group member by saving UGX 20,000 ($8 CAD) from our profits each week,” shares Jessica.

Through gifts like yours that helped provide training and enabled access to equipment to process fruit and staple crops, women like Jessica Nini are gaining confidence in their abilities to support their families.