Margaret Acan is 32 years old, lives in Kampala, Uganda and has had her life anchored on what the brewery in the slum Nagrur in Kampala could offer her and her family. She has worked this job since 1991.
Her name Acan means “hardship” in Acholi which describes her life. She was born during Iddi Amin’s rule in Uganda but God has changed her life through IMFC’s Manna Ministry. Here is Margaret’s story in her own words.
The brewery has never been and was not my choice job! I got displaced from my village in Kitgum district due to the Karamojong cattle thieves who raided my village, killed all the boys and men, then raped the women…young and old. My whole family died that day!
They took off all our clothes. We were all left naked. We spent days hiding our nakedness in the bushes and when the Kony rebels turned up that same week, they did not find people in their houses because we were hiding in the bush for we still had no clothes. They just burned down our homes!!
With that we decided to head to town though it offered nothing better. We were now homeless! We found our selves sleeping on the streets! I never imagined we would every do this in this life!
I got a casual job at a construction site fetching heavy bricks. This is what I did in order to get a meal! Sometimes the men at the site wanted to take advantage of me! And it’s through this kind of life that I met my husband who then brought me to Naguru here in Kampala promising me that life would be better. But that is not what I got! So because life was very tough in terms of even daily food, I was introduced to the brewery as the next best alternative! What I a bondage I was introduced too!!
Brewing job wares one out! It’s very physically demanding as one fetches the firewood for boiling the crude alcohol. And firewood is not easy to come by since we are not in the woods but here in the city. Some times when we fail to get firewood, we get desperate enough to use old car tires for firewood, and yet burning these old tires produces a very bad black smoke that has gotten many people here sick causing chest pains. Our backs ache from carrying about thirty 20 litter jerry cans daily to fill the big metal container. Our skin is all dried out and peels off with scales like features. Most have respiratory problems. Every lady here in the brewery smells like they were soaked in crude alcohol and dried up with smoke from the burnt tires/wood. The black smoke has gotten many of us to have dark red eyes.
Yes many of the ladies I worked with are sick with AIDS/HIV and many are now on treatment. A need to sell the alcohol has exposed many of us to AIDS/HIV as many men here and outside offer money to many of us in exchange for sex. This is very tempting on days when one has failed to get sales for the alcohol made that day.
Daily, for all that time, I use to make 4 jerry cans of alcohol having 20 litters each. It would take me to start work in the wee hours of the day. So from 2:00am in the morning I would start. We do not have any light in that place so women here have been robbed and raped!
Its very hard for us to pray to God for safety because we all know that our kind of business did not build His kingdom, yet we needed the money for livelihood. The guilt I had was killing me on the inside!
Everyday I prayed for a better alternative job. The brewery has only brought grief to God and families here. The alcohol we supplied has caused many husbands to leave their homes. They have also beaten their wives. Some people have reportedly died of over consumption of alcohol.
The brewery has also killed some of the workers it has had. There are days when the heavy hot boiling metal container has burst spilling all the hot crude alcohol on those around it! Some people have been burnt to death. Also, when it rains here there is no way to keep dry and then the next day I would be struggling with fever!
In all the 20 years I have been in the brewery, I have completely nothing to show that it has done for me and my family! It was as if I was a slave to a very bad master!
Many of the women here in the brewery live tooth and mouth. It’s so interesting to see. The brewery owns the lives of all its workers and it determines how and where to spend ones day! I spend all days here in tears, here in the brewery! The women here spend all their days in tears! Tears are what we ate daily!
That’s is where Manna Ministry found me! I was very suicidal when Manna came into the brewery! Business was getting from bad to worst! Bills to pay were piling up. I do not know how you people found me out! But what you did is great in my life! At the time you came in I was even separated from my husband! He left the kids and me!
You came and changed my life and all the women at the brewery when you took us into the food program and brought ministry to our lives!! We got food and also the house church! We did not go to church, but now there is church very close to the brewery! The word of God preached here changed my life! The food gave me the encouragement to see other better opportunities of work that would make God happy!
So I quit the brewery!! I am done with it! I have saved up money that helped me start a food stall. I also found out that I know how to dance the traditional Acholi dance which I also now do for money! With all this there is so much joy you brought to my heart! I am now born again and freed up to serve God!! When Bible Way comes in Acholi translations, I will get enrolled! My husband has also returned!! Thanks for your encouragement and love!!
Today I am a life you have freed from the bondage of the brewery!! Everyday I get to go back to the brewery to encourage the rest of the women still trapped there to trust God for something better now that He has provided Manna!!
This year has been the best–real joy experience I got!! Thanks to Manna!!
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