Journal on Doreen

Doreen continues to work in her cloth import business, buying colorful cloth called bitenge from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The bitenge come in bundles of 100 of 6 meter long pieces that can then be tailored into shirts, trousers, blouses, skirts, or even headbands for men, women or children. Doreen can make a profit of 20,000 Ugandan shillings (UGX) on 100 pieces, so business is profitable. She has brought in five bundles so far, and a boy sells them in front of a local hotel.

The business is going well, but personally she has had some setbacks. As reported in the last journal entry, her daughter has a paralyzed leg and needed an operation in September. The daughter is doing well, but needs to go to the hospital once a month for an examination. Also, a sister died in December and she had to travel to her village in northern Uganda at that time.

But despite these setbacks, things are going well. She and her husband, a police officer, continue to live in the government housing where they have lived for seven years. Profits she gets from the cloth business pay for school fees for her four children and two others, the children of friends for whom she is caring as well.