“You cannot fly alone, you have to go together”

Judith Beroirwoth is 41 years old and from the Bulisa district of Uganda. Like many women in her region of Uganda, Judith faced eviction due to a land grab. The National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) united her with other displaced women to learn about their legal land rights, and how to get in front of the right people in government for redress.   

Collective, grassroots action  

“Where I come from, women don’t have any voice. You cannot say or do anything. But then we started working with NAPE. They started training us on our rights as women. From there we started our journey.

“With NAPE, we have a kitchen garden and we have a safe space. We used to go to the radio talk show to hear from our fellow women. If there’s something which is not going well in the community, we carry out peaceful demonstrations.

NAPE advocates for us, they tell us our human rights and land, property and work rights. Where I come from, there is an oil and gas project that has been denying our right work.  NAPE supported us to put our petition letter together and as a group of women, we represented our area to our MP. NAPE is improving our lives in the community. We have a voice to talk because of them. 

With NAPE, we work together for our rights. If someone has denied a woman right to land, we move in the movement. Where I come from men don’t allow us to be in the title deed  to own a land or be entitled to the compensation. Together, we go and demand that  right for the woman to own their land and be compensated. 

There is one woman who was vying for the area Councillor position. Men tried to not allow her to stand for the post, so we mobilized to say that we want that woman to stand in the position. We won that vote and we danced. The movement really is a good thing. You cannot fly alone. You have to go together.”

The personal is political

Judith knows the power of this collective action as she herself needed to claim right to her land. As a result of coming together in their movement, Judith has received proper compensation, new land to build a house and farm. 

“We raised the alarm as women together,’ she says. ‘We mobilised. We said women must be compensated like men. And from there we won.” 

She has also found a strength in sisterhood that is continuing to bring about change in other aspects of women’s lives.   

“I bought the land, registered it in my name, and now have complete rights over it. I am grateful to NAPE for empowering me and providing training on women’s land rights, which motivated me to purchase my land. Now, I cultivate it and use the income I earn to feed my family.” 

Womankind has been partners with NAPE since 2017, and recently funded NAPE’s grassroots movement work through the Movement Strengthening Fund.