Ugandan Farmers Increase their Income; An Ethiopian Orphan Helps Thousands More Like Herself
MAKGABO: Welcome back to the program. We're now going to take you to rural Uganda and a story about farmers who are finally beginning to see the fruits of their labor. A government sponsored program is not only providing them better housing, but it's also boosting their income, as Susanna Gargelo reports.</s>SUSANNA GARGELO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's a reason for the smiles on Bruno Izarabura (ph) and his wife's faces. Today is the day when they move into their new home. It will be marked progress from the old one room mud hut they're leaving, and from the old garden latrine, which will now be rendered useless by a shiny, new toilet. Izarabura says he never one dreamed he would one day own such a beautiful home. And if all go as planned, his family will not be the only one smiling. An estimated 80 percent of rural Ugandans live in extremely poor housing, many surviving on a dollar or less a day. The Izaraburas are only the first to benefit from a Ugandan initiative, which aims to transform the lives of millions.</s>PROF. GILBERT BUKENYA, VICE PRESIDENT, UGANDA: I see the plight of Africans, not only in Uganda but the whole of sub-Saharan Africa in danger. And the only way we can solve it is by building relatively health related, hygiene related houses that can assist the people live in a better life.</s>GARGELLO: Uganda's Vice President Professor Gilbert Bukenya is the brain behind the Rural Mortgage Project, which he says has spread to 22 of Uganda's 56 districts. It is the culmination of a process that began two years ago when he encouraged farmers to change their crop from coffee to the more lucrative rice. Bukenya says the moved hiked monthly incomes from $5 a month to a remarkable $60 a month. But he says it has required a new way of thinking.</s>BUKENYA: As you know, Africans like happiness, so they'll be using some of this money wrongly. That's why we're encouraging them, as soon as they get the money, run quickly and save it with Micro Finance.</s>GARGELLO: Bukenya says that with the new savings plan, farmers are putting away 25 to 30 percent of their income, enabling them to pay off the house in three years. The project is receiving attention and accolades from across Uganda. But the government is still somewhat cautious, saying it will need international donors and investors to help jump-start the development of more houses. Bukenya says the goal is to ensure good, quality housing for some two million poor families, just like the Izaraburas, by 2015. He hopes that if the project is successful here, the enterprising idea could spread to other African nations. Susanna Gargelo, CNN, Atlanta.</s>MAKGABO: On to Ethiopia now and another person who is turning dreams into reality. Her name is Abebech Cobena, a resident of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, who's used some of the experience of own her life to begin helping the less fortunate children of her community. Silvia Smith profiles this extraordinary woman who is showing young people the path to a better tomorrow.</s>SYLVIA SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Abebech Cobena's father was killed a month after she was born. From her earliest days she knew what it was like to struggle. At the tender age of 10 she was married to an older man at the urging of her grandparents, a marriage she eventually escaped by fleeing to Addis Ababa.</s>ABEBECH COBENA, ORPHANAGE FOUNDER (through translator): From my childhood I know what it is like to be living on the streets with no money and without love.</s>SMITH: Instead of bringing her down, the experience of being homeless made her more aware of the plight of others. As she grew up, she saw many crushed by poverty, hunger and backwardness. In 1973, at the time of drought, civil war and famine, a turning point; a sight that was to change her life forever, a dead woman with a child at her breasts.</s>COBENA (through translator): I couldn't leave that child or any of the others I saw abandoned.</s>SMITH: By the end of that year, she had 21 children in her care and the number continues to grow. With 150 mouths to feed everyday, food is high on the agenda here. And the orphanage is training children how to process food, skills that will help them get employment when they're older. Ever resourceful, Abebech laid long-term plans; the older orphans would make and sell the local injera bread and other traditional foods. A strategy that has paid off, her orphanage is recognized by the government: The Abebech Governor Orphanage and School now has 200 residents and 482 non-resident pupils.</s>TADESSE BEYENE, SUPERINTENDENT (through translator): As well as the children, we'll help everyone in the neighborhood who will need to earn money. Our aim is to produce self-sufficient citizens with skills.</s>SMITH: These children will be well trained and are virtually guaranteed employment. And food is often at the center.</s>MESERET DANKU, TEACHER (through translator): I was an orphan here. But I trained as a catering manager and have a good job, on top of teaching here.</s>SMITH (on camera): For over 25 years, the orphanage has helped thousands of children in need. But what's less well known is that it also supplies local food products and trained staff to the country's top hotels. Matching the demands of Ethiopia's current tourism boom. For CNN's INSIDE AFRICA, I'm Sylvia Smith in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.</s>MAKGABO: Abebech Cobena's work received international recognition last year when she received the prestigious London World Aware Business Award. And if you'd like to read up a little bit more about her work, go online and log on to our Web site. It's cnn.com/insideafrica, and while you're there you could also get the latest on African music and take part in our "Quick Vote." The address for you once again is cnn.com/insideafrica. And coming up after the break, a new Zimbabwean newspaper hits newsstands thousands of miles away from home. We'll have details for you next. Don't go away.