Emerging from the lockdown a better father
58-year-old Lambert is living to prove that stereotypes and negative cultural norms can be dismantled even while living in a very patriarchal rural society. He now comfortably shares household chores with his wife,their 3 daughters and 3 sons. As a family, they all freely discuss finances, including budgeting for the available money together.
This is not a normal scenario in most households in Ugandan communities. Typically, household chores are left to the women and girls and finances are rarely discussed as a family, but a preserve for the manto decide especially on expenditure.
This change of attitude was however not instant. It was inspired from a coffee value chain group in which Lambert was a member for purposes of increasing their coffee growing and sales. One of the methodologies that was introduced by Agency For Community Empowerment to help the farmers with their coffee growing and marketing was the Gender Action Learning System. The methodology developed by Oxfam uses a series of tools to help the participants explore the opportunities around them but also vision their futures. It also challenges them on how well they are working together with their families to achieve the stated visions. Using successful examples of families that have used the methodology to work together and achieve their visions, group members, including Lambert were inspired to try it out.