UNPAID CARE WORK
Unpaid care work is a phrase used to define the burden of the work done at home and not paid for. Since time immemorial, in Uganda and other African countries the burden of household work falls only on female counter parts. It is upon this, that MAWDA with funding from Action Aid Uganda implemented this project with the aim of raising awareness of the existence of injustices resulting from imposing the burden of household work to only women and girls.
MAWDA in its intervention to implement the unpaid care work project uses the Reflection Action methodology which methodology does not only tackles issues related to unpaid care work but also other community problems. Therefore, MAWDA is able to conduct activities under the unpaid care work of women project through the Reflection Action groups. Hence MAWDA is able to track the activities done under this project through reports submitted to MAWDA by Reflection Action facilitators and support visits conducted by MAWDA secretariat to these groups. Under this project the following activities are conducted these include; conduction of reflection meetings on unpaid care work, holding of community dialogue on unpaid care work, filling of time diaries, promotion of income generating activities, and support visits to RA groups.
Reflection Action meetings
Reflection Action groups operating under MAWDA hold a number of Reflection Action meetings with the aim of raising awareness on the unpaid care work. The facilitators while conducting Reflection Meetings on unpaid care work focus is put on drivers of unpaid care work. In other words, emphasis is put on finding out why the culture of dis-aggregating household work has prevailed in our communities, what implications are faced by families promoting this culture and the benefits of breaking this culture.
Community Dialogue on unpaid care work
MAWDA organizes and holds community dialogues on unpaid care work and they are attended by community members. The Dialogues aims at strengthening the community level understanding of the concept of unpaid care work and the capacity of Reflection Action group members in promoting the concept of unpaid care work.