‘WE’RE EVEN ABLE TO SAVE SOME MONEY NOW’

Lawrence Walakira, carpenter EQUIP Rental Workshop, Kampala Uganda

On the grounds of the tool rental workshop of our local partner Children Sure House in Bwaise, a district in Uganda’s capital Kampala, you will find a bandsaw machine. Just like all the other tools in the workshop, this machine can be rented by local carpenters to saw the planks or panels they need when doing jobs or making furniture. The bandsaw is also used to saw planks and panels ordered by customers of the rental workshop. This allows a number of carpenters to earn a salary that enables them to support themselves and their families. Lawrence Walakira is one of those carpenters.

Security

“I came to Kampala on my own looking for work. My wife stayed behind in our village because I did not have enough money in the beginning to support both of us and our child. It was really difficult at first. I had no starting capital to set up my own carpentry business. I was living hand-to-mouth. Sometimes I would earn a little and then I would earn nothing for a while. This rental workshop changed my life. Being able to rent the tools that I didn’t have, I could take on jobs that I would never have been able to do without those tools. I also got the chance to work here on the bandsaw machine to saw wood that is ordered by customers at the workshop. That gave me the security of having my family come to Kampala as well”.

Savings

“We’re renting a house nearby. I earn my money here in the workshop and also do contract jobs. I look for jobs myself, but there are also customers who come to the workshop and approach me for carpentry jobs in Kampala or out of town. My financial situation has improved enormously. I now earn on average 450,000 UGX (€ 107) per month. With this I can pay the rent of our house, the daily groceries, clothes, the electricity bill and so on. We even have money left to do some saving. A little while ago we bought a sewing machine. My wife uses it to sew clothes that she sells herself. This way we both contribute to our family income.”