On April 8, 2023, Florence and her colleagues arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa for the Rand Show Exhibition. They were at this exhibition to showcase the crafts and the clothes they make, what they did not anticipate was going hungry for two days before a Good Samaritan came to their rescue.
When Florence Maganda, Jane Naikoba, Harriet Naigaga and Frank Barozi Asiimwe touched down in Johannesburg two days after the exhibition had started due to a visa delay, that was the beginning of their problems. On the morning they arrived they needed to go get a space at the show, arrange it, organise for transport and their luggage. This was all done between 2:30 and 3 pm.
However due to their delay the space they had booked had been occupied, which made it difficult for them to showcase their products but this was not the end of their troubles. "We reached late and already the exhibition had started two days back and the organisers knew that we were not coming and our place was occupied, so we had to get somewhere else and we had to put our products down," said Florence.
It was when they thought of going to their hotel to rest that they discovered their booking agent had paid less than was agreed. Having used all their money to pay for an immediate ticket, they were stranded.
For two days they were stranded without food or somewhere to stay. This is when a "friend" they had made on April 9, a fellow exhibitor called Sister Jenny, noticed their distress.
A chance encounter in the bathroom between Sister Jenny and Harriet led to Sister Jane inviting Harriet to try her creams on her stall.
Hungry and desperate, Harriet opened up to Sister Jenny that they were starving. And worse still, did not know how they would survive the next few days.
To Harriet's surprise, Sister Jenny did not rebuff her but instead asked to meet the rest of her team.
She was concerned about their welfare as they were foreigners in a country they were unfamiliar with and with no money or visible assistance coming soon.
After making several attempts, without success to reach the Ugandan embassy, Sister Jane had an idea. Sister Jenny convinced Harriet and her fellow stranded team members Florence Maganda and Jane Naikoba to consent to make a video about their plight.
"Nobody did reach us in that time apart from South Africa friends we got, they are the ones who helped us," said Florence.
Sister Jenny and her husband managed to raise money for them for food and transport for that night, a restaurant to provide free meals for them the next day, a coffee shop to provide them with coffee and the hotel they were staying at to give them breakfast the next day. In addition to all this she managed to organise for Florence and her colleagues to get an exhibition table to showcase their merchandise and to mobilise people to come and buy from their stall at the Rand Show.
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Frank, who had been taking care of Florence and her colleagues and was acting as their marketer and interpreter, reiterates the fact that their problems started with the delay of their visa, were compounded by the fact that the hotel they had booked for them was far from the venue and the person tasked with booking the hotel did not pay the full amount for it.
According to Frank, their booking agent called Justin was less than forthcoming. Frank says, "Justin did not even avail us (them) with receipts of the hotel payment rather only showed and gave us the booking voucher that did not even indicate the amount we paid."
In regards to Sister Jenny, Frank is full of nothing but praise for her. "She put our products on different media podiums and up to now we still have clients online as well." says Frank.
When asked why she helped them Sister Jenny said, "I believe God brought us all to the world to show love and compassion for our neighbours and all humanity. If everyone could care about everyone, there would be world peace. We should always do everything possible to ease the suffering of those in need."
Florence, Harriet, Frank and Jane left South Africa on the April 11, at 11:45 pm and arrived in Uganda on the April 12th at 11:35 am the next morning.
