ON a recent Saturday morning, as the sun emerged from a thin veil of clouds, a cheerful chorus of female voices rang out across the rolling hills of the Rwamwanja refugee settlement in Uganda’s fertile south-west.
For Mahoro Florence and dozens of her fellow women farmers, these hills have become a sanctuary where survival blooms into hope. The women – some with babies tied to their backs – sing in unison as they pull weeds from a field of rice. “Most of us are single mothers,” said the 38-year-old Congolese mother of eight.
“The community here welcomed us with love. When we reached Uganda, [the government] gave us land to build our homes, and non-food items to help us settle in. We also received food rations,” she said.
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