The Women’s Empowerment Center opens up on the main road to the lodges. It gives the village women a place to learn, while their children are in school, to use foot powered equipment to make clothes and crafts for the village’s use and to sell to the tourists. It is also a place for the women to learn treading, writing, arithmetic and receive medical care..
The Women’s Empowerment Center is hosted in the second building constructed through the generous gifts of over 200 donors. The building is named in honor of Nancy Wright, a long-time supporter of the school. Nancy passed away shortly after attending the dedication of the first building on September 8, 2019. The people of Mubaku village requested that the new building be named in her honor. Read more about Nancy’s contribution in our November 2019 Mubaku Educational Foundation Newsletter #2.
The Women’s Empowerment Center is housed in the front quarter of the Nancy Wright building.
The Women’s Empowerment Center is having a positive impact.
Nov 23, 2021: The Women’s Empowerment Center has more women who want to learn tailoring, basket weaving, and other crafts making. They have requested that we fund the instructor to come back to train more women. They also want to expand the capacity of the center.
In February 2022, MEF gave the village the funds they needed to hire a teacher to teach some village women how to use the foot-powered sewing machines and other equipment. The results have been amazing. The village wants to expand the training, purchase some materials to be used in the training, and add five more sewing machines. The total cost will be $1,500.
Oct 22, 2021: Fachan Doreen, the WEC lead, is making products for the local lodges. She uses the stick behind her to walk.
A disabled woman who lives in the village, Fachan Doreen, was trained and is now in charge of the project. Fachan Doreen is the mother of two girls. Fachan Doreen is training five other women from the village in the use of all the equipment.
Doreen Fachan is now training more people including the young girls who had not been attending school during the lockdown.
Doreen and other women were able to get a contract from the Safari lodges for making tablecloths and Kitenges fabric. Kitenges are colorful pieces of fabric that contain a variety of patterns and designs. Kitenges are often worn by women. They are wrapped around the chest or waist, over the head as a headscarf, or as a baby sling.
Women’s Empowering Center had now become a meeting place for big events such as immunization, local council meetings, etc.
May 16, 2023: An example of the crafts the village women are now selling. The majority are made in the Women’s Empowerment Center.
 February 6, 2021: Woman trying out the new sewing machines. |
 March 6, 2021: Angida Winnie, one of the Nursery Teachers, demonstrates the machines. They are foot power as there is no electricity in the village. |
 May 19, 2021: The drums, the dingidi (string instrument), the khaki picnic box, and the laptop bags with the pictures of Africa on them were all made using the Women’s Empowerments Center’s new equipment. |
 July 14, 2021: During the painting of the WEC the women would move the equipment to the old shade structure to continue learning. Here Abetegeka Gertrude a student at Bright Future School is learning how to use the foot power sewing machine. |
 July 23, 2021: For classes, the women move the equipment outside into the shade of a tree. |
 July 24, 2021: The joy of learning is infectious. |
 July 24, 2021: Displayed are the blankets that the women have learned to make. |
 Jul 24, 2021: The Paraa dispensary nurses vaccinate children. The WEC is now used as a mobile dispensary |
 August 18, 2021: Displayed are the blankets the WEC is making for local lodges |
Nov 2, 2020: The members of the Women’s Empowerment Center meet at the new building. They are very excited about the opportunities this will open to them.