Featured image: Irene Nalwoga and a group of women on tour with Women Tour Uganda | Photo provided by Women Tour Uganda

Rising above challenges in the mountains of Uganda

by Rupi Mangat

The most recent Mountain Gorilla Census was conducted in 2018, when there were estimated to be 1,063 mountain gorillas left in the wild. This changed the status of mountain gorillas IUCN status from critically endangered to endangered, a species that was once thought to have become extinct by the end of the last century when they were first discovered!

They are only found in the Virunga-Bwindi Landscape with just two small populations in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park in South-Western Uganda and contiguous Sarambwe Nature Reserve, and in the Virunga mountains bordering Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They continue to face threats from poaching, diseases, habitat disturbance, and human population pressure. Today, Bwindi’s population of mountain gorillas is 459 and increasing thanks to the work of organizations like Conservation Through Public Health.

In dream of a holiday

With a staff of 10 at Women Tour Uganda, Irene’s journey into the safari world is peppered with laughter.

“I didn’t know what ‘holidays’ were,” she says. “As a child, I used to see tourists come to Uganda and go on safaris in big cars and wondered what that was all about. And when I came to Entebbe for the first time as a child, I saw an aeroplane – and I felt right at home.”

From then on, the young Ugandan girl was on a mission to rise into the world and work her way out of the ghettos of Kampala where she lived with her single mother and two siblings.

“I had a most challenging childhood,” she says. “My most vivid memory is of being constantly chased from school because of school fees. And I’m talking about the school in the ghetto where the government-run schools were really cheap. My mother struggled. She had a small business selling cosmetics and then she died when I turned 17.”

Irene’s resilience paid off. Soon after finishing school, Irene was employed in a bank in Kampala. “I worked there for four years and learned a lot about money but it was routine. My dream was to live a full life and be remembered for the impact I made in this world.”

“I love meeting people, expanding my mind. At the bank, I met many customers and told them what I really wanted to do and I was encouraged by them.”

In 2011, aged 25, with some money saved, Irene registered her safari company Renewills Tours and Travel and in 2016 she registered another business name under it called Women Tour Uganda specialising in solo women travellers. She created her website and let the world know she was in business. “I had a mentor – Mr. Morgan Kisitu, who guided me on the safari business and believed in me. I am eternally grateful to him.

“But it was really slow and very hard. When I got my first client in 2011, a woman working for the UN, I was so excited.”

The safari was only a day trip to Ngamba Island, a short sail from Entebbe on Lake Victoria to see the rescued chimpanzees from the evils of the illegal pet trade. There was no turning back now.

Many of her former clients from the bank asked her to organize their safaris and then recommended her to their friends. A major breakthrough came shortly – being invited to a marketing exhibition abroad. It was to Canada where she first learned about solo women travel. “I noticed there were so many women who wanted to travel to Uganda but didn’t have anyone to travel with.”

“This was a major turning point in my life,” she recalls. “In 2016, I made a decision to concentrate on travel for only women, women who want to come to Uganda but are scared to travel alone. I created scheduled departures for solo women to sign on every month, and join other solo women on the same safari, at very affordable prices and in a safe environment. Being a solo woman traveller myself, we travel together, laugh together, dance together and I have seen friendships built from our scheduled safaris. On each safari, I or one of my female guides accompanies the group with the final stop to hike up in Bwindi to see the Mountain Gorillas.”

I believe her hearty laugh is because of the strong lungs from breathing deep the mountain air.

Falling to the ground

When the world went into a crisis with Covid in 2019, Irene lost everything she had made in her business. Tourists stopped coming and so did the money. There was no money to pay the bills.

“I was back to zero and it nearly killed me. But I didn’t give up,” she says.

It paid off. She was invited by the American and French embassies in Uganda to train Ugandan women entrepreneurs in revamping after Covid. “It was about networking, collaborating and targeting markets. It’s how I found JourneyWoman and I’m so grateful to it because I have clients who find me through its website.”

“I never dreamed of all this. We have women trusting us, booking safaris with us but have never met us. And it’s all because of the incredible endorsements we get from the solo women who have travelled with us.”

Rising high and encouraging women entrepreneurs

From purchasing her first safari cruiser to being featured on the American government website in Uganda. 

Seeing her late mother struggle through life as a small-time businesswoman in the ghetto, Irene created the Women Tour Uganda Angels Trust. 

“From the profits of our safaris, we support a selected single mom entrepreneur with capital that will make her business grow. We mentor the woman so that she can uplift herself.”

This is the impact she wants to be remembered by.

Check out Uganda Women Safari in the Women’s Travel Directory here.

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