Monday, 28 July 2008

Katine: A whole family hangs on lifeline of remittances

* Richard Kavuma
* The Guardian,
* Saturday July 26 2008


Six years ago, Stephen Elasu travelled the 220-mile road from Katine in rural Uganda to the capital, Kampala, to seek a better life in the city. Despite early struggles to find work, he says that life in Kampala is better than it would have been in Katine sub-county.

"If I had stayed in Katine, although I was devoted to religion, I might have turned into someone who drinks too much alcohol," says Elasu, 26, who works as a media monitor with a research group. "Maybe I would have lots of children, like most of my friends who dropped out of school in lower primary."

The Guardian is tracking Amref's three-year development project, in partnership with Barclays, to improve the lives of the 25,000 people in Katine sub-county, where Elasu was born.

He now earns 150,000 Ugandan shillings (£46) a month but more than half of that goes on rent and transport from his one-room flat in the suburb of Bweyogerere to his workplace on Kampala's Buganda Road.Migrants to the city fund relatives' basic essentials but there is a price to pay. [Read More]

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