By Timothy Ondere

They say “money makes the world go round” — and indeed it does. I strolled down the streets of Kampala, brushing shoulders with street kings, queens and their proteges, trying to find out how they put food on the table. Truth be told, though we have many unpublishable ways of making money down here, we still have legal ways, too, that have a future.

Living at the Hotel International in Muyenga, a 15-minute drive from Kampala, I would make my first stop at a 24-hours shopping center by the name Kabalagala. Here everything is available at whatever time of the day and every one is so welcoming — save for a female bouncer I met at one particular club, who wanted to thow me out for asking her where the toilets were before making my order.

Kampala downtown would be my prefarable second stop.  There is something about streets in these areas that is always fresh and since my story is about money exchanging hands there is no way I would have avoided the red-soiled streets of Kampala.

It is here that I bumped into Josephine Birungi, who gave me a moving story of how she got herself off the streets and got help at Kabaawo Mutundwe co-operative savings and credit society limited, a 30-minute drive from Kampala. She says she owes her entire life to the organisation, they trusted her with their money when she went to ask for capital to start a business after seeing her business plan.

Josephine started a business in poulty farming two years ago and she has never looked back. I visited her farm and the sacco where she is a member now and filed the following report: