Africa Feature: Chinese factory in rural Uganda empowers women to fend for themselves

For Brenda Namugolo, 26, life had come to an end when her husband left her to fend for the young family.

Although she is a university graduate, she could not find a decent job that would pay her house rent and also take care of her two children.

Namugolo is not alone. Many women in Uganda, where over half of the country's total population of 35 million people is women, are striving to get jobs to better their livelihoods.

In Kasenge village, Mukono district about 20 km east of the capital Kampala, a Chinese factory is causing changing to the status quo of women.

In the mornings, there is a beehive of activity at the Tian Tang Group factory complex as many women queue to enter the complex to work. The 85 million U.S. dollar complex has a plywood factory, mattress factory, and steel factory.

Wang Wentong, General Manager of the industrial complex told Xinhua that many women in the village are transforming from being subsistence farmers to industrial workers. This he says provides the women with steady income which in turn they use to improve their livelihoods.

In the mattress factory, women are busy working on the sewing machines. Clad in red shirts and black trousers, they sew the cloths that are used to dress the mattresses.

These mattresses are sold within Uganda and neighboring countries like South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Among the women on the sewing machine is Namugolo. During the lunch break, she agrees to talk to Xinhua.

With a beaming smile, she sings praises of her job.

"My life has improved a lot since I got this job a year ago. I am now able to pay school fees for my children and my house rent," she said.

Her future plan when she makes enough savings is to buy a piece of land where she can build her own house.

Namugolo said that although their Chinese supervisors give them breaks, she has learnt that in order to improve your livelihood you have to work hard.

She argued that this is what keeps her going if she is to ensure a better livelihood of her children.

Asked about her children, Namugolo gets in a somber mood saying she misses them a lot.

"They are with my parents in Iganga. Every time I think about them, I feel like crying," she said. Although Namugolo rents a single room near the factory, her grandparents stay about 150 km away.

The lunch time is far spent and Namugolo has to have a quick lunch before resuming work.

Elsewhere in the complex, work has also resumed. Truckloads of mattresses snake out of the complex compound heading to the market.

In the plywood and steel factory, women are also active. This section however has more men than women because of the heavy nature of the work. Endit