By Joan Mugenzi
28 January 2003
Kampala — MIFUMI village in Tororo district is no village anyone would wish to settle in. The poverty in this place bites.
The few reasonable houses have old rusty iron sheets. The children in this village move about in torn clothes.
Not even food can bring joy to one’s face. The soils are exhausted. The plants look miserable, and the only farming in this place is subsistence.
Whilst battling with these thoughts, a woman who spent the first decade of her career life in the United Kingdom has comfortably settled here. At the time of her return, she was working with the Women’s Aid National office as the refugee development officer, overseeing the management and the running of 350 refuges all over the UK.
She may miss the aromatic herbal baths in England, but making a difference back to her roots is what brings her joy.
Atuki Turner, a lawyer, is struggling to change the face of her homeland in Padhola land. The road to her motherland is no smooth ride. It is a bumpy murram road that one has to endure, yet there is nothing to look at that will bring a smile.
Looking at the mud and wattle houses will not certainly strike you. The loitering children can only bring tears to your eyes.
Suddenly when you get to Mifumi, white and green buildings stand out. It is the first place you see torches of electric bulbs. This is a dispensary. There is also a primary school with beautiful structures. Government took over the premises as a UPE school. The school has 800 pupils. The dispensary and school are what have brought about some glamour in this small village that might be unheard of.
This change has come about because of Atuki and her husband, Turner’s efforts.
Atuki used to teach at the Mifumi School during her S4 and S6 vacation and the long holidays at university (in the 1980s). She attended Mt. St. Mary’s College Namagunga before joining Makerere University, where she pursued a Bachelor of Laws degree.
“We would sit on the sand, grass and tree trucks,” she recalls. “There were no blackboards so I talked the whole day. The children were so intelligent, many of them died during the term. It was not uncommon to lose four children a term, yet they were dying of easily treatable diseases like malaria and anaemia.”
This experience left a blue print in her life. While in Kenya for a year, after completing her law course, she met a lifetime partner, Glyn Turner, who was working at Starehe Boys Centre in Nairobi, as the computers master.
They spoke about each other’s future, hopes and dreams.
“I told him I would like to support my village so that children there can also have a chance in life. I wanted them to grow up and have employment or create their own employment,” she says.
Turner had the experience of working with poor children in a rich set up, where rich people supported the children. The school helped disadvantaged children.
“I looked at that as a resource from my husband, yet I also had the experience of working with disadvantaged children. Why not start up something? I kept on asking myself,” Atuki reveals her dream.
When she finally joined Turner in the UK in 1989, they decided to set up a charity where they could raise funds for Mifumi village. They called it the Promote Mifumi project, abbreviated as PROMPT. They sent their constitution to the Charities Commission and in 1995, they were registered as a charity in the UK.
They struggled to have a local NGO registered here so that PROMPT could only act as a sister organisation. They did not register the Mifumi Project until 1998.
“We always wanted it to be an indigenous project. We did not want it to be a branch of PROMPT,” says Atuki.
At the time of fundraising, they approached funders like Comic Relief, an organisation that is supporting their Domestic Violence project.
They also approached the National Lottery Charities Board community fund in the UK. In 2000, this organisation funded the young persons project, the health project and the women’s advocacy programme.
The British government through DFID is partly funding the domestic violence project and the micro finance project.
As a result of Atuki’s efforts, the small village of Mifumi made national news in December 2001, when they held the controversial bride price referendum in Tororo. The majority voted in favour of no return for marriage gifts once a marriage is dissolved.
She has a big heart for women and she struggles to see to it that they get a good deal out of life. She was exposed to women issues through a book entitled, The Second Sex by Simeone De Beavoir, which widened her understanding of women issues. This French writer’s philosophy is that men and women were equal.
“After reading the book, I became more interested in gender issues and women’s rights, human rights and more particularly, seeing the reduction of discrimination against the women,” she reveals.
Later on, she did a Masters degree in Women Studies at the University of West of England. She also holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the Sheffield Hallam University. Right now she wants to spend time writing scripts on bride price.
Atuki is the fourth child to the late engineer Lawrence and Evelyn Okoth. Two of the 11 children died when young. Her father was killed during the Lakwena era, and all the nine children scattered thereafter.
When she and Turner came back two years ago, their Mifumi home was deserted. She decided that they turn part of the home into offices. Her brother, Patrick, helped in the initial set up of the project. Today the couple employs 30 people from different parts of Uganda.
Looking back at how far they have come, Atuki’s husband, Turner, says: “It is quite pleasing. It has perhaps gone further than we have ever dreamed. However, that does not mean that we can sit back. We have been very fortunate. Sometimes it is about being in the right place at the right time.”
He describes his wife as someone who does not give up. “Atuki is kind hearted and hard working. She expects results in whatever she does and she is very talented in various areas. She can dedicate herself to a task until she gets through.”
“I am becoming a monk in Mifumi. I go out to Tororo about twice a month and once in three months I may go to Kampala when I have meetings I must attend,” says Atuki.
The short stay in Mifumi has not been easy either.
“I have been here for two years now. It has been challenging and I have been restless. Dealing with the community is not an easy thing. I am always learning to read between the lines and the rewards are great,” says Atuki.
Working and lobbying for things like electricity would certainly make her suitable to run for parliament, but this is far from her.
“I shy away from politics because I believe it will conflict with my work,” she states with a straight face.