Meet Christine Nadunga: How a Vegetable Stall Funds School Fees for Eight Children

Christine Nadunga provides for a household of ten people in Eastern Uganda. Her eight children depend on her for meals, clothing, and education. Before her business began, she sold small crop harvests from her home garden. Those small sales brought sporadic income that failed to cover basic food costs and school fees.

A friend living near the local chairman told Christine about Global Village Connect’s community development program. Christine lived in a distant village, but she chose to walk to the sessions. She saw the course as a direct path to support GVC’s mission of community self-reliance and build a steady income.

Practical lessons in customer care and pricing

Christine attended every session. She studied methods for setting fair prices, tracking profits, and building customer trust. She also learned how to identify high-demand food staples in local markets.

Eggplants and African garden eggs were popular in the regional market, but few vendors maintained fresh inventory. Christine decided to purchase fresh vegetables from nearby growers and resell them at a dedicated market stall, following a direct agricultural supply model like fresh produce vendor Aida Mugide.

Raising capital and opening the stall

Christine combined a loan from her local savings group with money from her husband, gathering 300,000 UGX (about $80 USD) in startup capital. She purchased large basins, traveled to partner farms, and bought clean sacks of eggplants and garden eggs.

On market day, Christine set up her produce basins early in the morning. She greeted shoppers, smiled at passersby, and offered fair prices. Customers responded by purchasing her entire stock before the afternoon ended. No other market vendors gave her trouble, and she returned home with her first successful sales day behind her.

“I arranged my vegetables in clean basins and spoke to every person who walked past. People bought everything I brought. I went home excited because I earned money through my own effort.”

— Christine Nadunga (shared with GVC’s field team)

Consistent earnings and school fees

Christine earns a steady daily profit of 10,000 UGX (about $2.70 USD). That income supports her family in three concrete ways:

• Nutritious Meals: Christine buys consistent food supplies for all eight children every day.
• School Fees: She pays tuition and book fees on time for two of her children attending school.
• Emergency Savings: She puts aside a small portion of each day’s profit into a savings fund for unexpected family expenses.

Christine relies on word of mouth and customer care to maintain her sales. She washes and sorts her vegetables before market hours, ensuring customers always receive fresh produce.

Plans to expand the business

Christine plans to expand her market presence. She is saving to rent a larger stall and add tomatoes and onions to her basins, mirroring the agricultural growth of vertical grower Simon and retail merchants like avocado vendor Annet Namono, Edith Namataka, Gladys Muduwa, and food vendor Annet Nelima. Her long-term goal is to fund school fees for all eight of her children through secondary graduation. (Read more about regional crop farming in our field notes on farming and rains).

To support more rural mothers starting businesses in Eastern Uganda, please visit our donation page.