OFFERING HELP—AND CULTIVATING HOPE

In 1993, Joseph lost his mother to AIDS. In 2005, AIDS claimed Joseph’s father, too. Without anywhere to go, Joseph and his brother began living with their eighty-four-year-old grandmother. But because she is unable to work, she has found it difficult to support her orphaned grandchildren. For a time, Joseph’s uncle pitched in, but soon he could no longer afford to help. Joseph was forced to drop out of school.

Joseph began working in his neighbors’ gardens, trying to earn enough money to provide for his family’s needs. But due to difficult times, many of his neighbors couldn’t afford to continue paying him. Without an education and a stable source of income, Joseph had few options.

However, Joseph’s circumstances have now changed, thanks to a scholarship from Alliance Africa and Friends in Need Integrated Development Project. Joseph has returned to school, grateful and determined to achieve his dreams. “I hope to become an engineer,” he told us, “and when I finish my studies, I will try my level best to help other orphans and those in need.”

Joseph is one of many students in Uganda who work hard, show great promise, and desire to give back to their communities, but whose dreams are diminished by poverty, hunger, and disease. Through scholarships for students like Joseph and livestock projects for families struggling to make ends meet, Alliance Africa is working together with local leaders to offer help and cultivate hope.

FOCUS ON UGANDA INITIATIVE

Alliance Africa began in 2006 with the aim of supporting families and empowering local community-based organization in the Mukono district of Uganda. With the help of our donors and partners, Alliance Africa has already provided scholarships for 22 students orphaned by AIDS and other causes and given goats to help 25 families put food on the table. Alliance Africa’s long-term vision is to expand our work to other African countries, but for now, we are starting small, focusing first on one community. There, in Mukono, just $3, the cost of a cappuccino, can provide school lunch for an AIDS orphan—for three months. In Uganda, a little does a lot.

To help families in Uganda, Alliance Africa is currently working to raise support for local, community-based organizations such as Friends in Need Integrated Development Project (FINIDP). A registered, community-based non-profit, FINIDP serves rural communities and villages in the Mukono District. Led by a diverse and talented group of local professionals, including two university lecturers, an elementary school principal, a doctor, an accountant, a counselor, and several project managers, FINIDP strives “to build a literate, healthy, responsible and self-sustaining society living in a clean environment.” Rather than focusing on one issue, FINIDP provides holistic support for one community. Their integrated, grassroots approach to development enables them to be sensitive to the needs of the community while offering sustainable support to families in need.

FINIDP has a strong relationship with Alliance Africa. Co-founder Michael Lamb spent a month working with FINIDP in Uganda in 2005, and co-founder Rob James spent a week evaluating FINIDP programs in 2006. FINIDP has also received grants from Orphans Against AIDS and the Rhodes Scholar Southern African Forum, both of which have increased their support after seeing FINIDP’s effective use of funds and careful management of projects. FINIDP has earned a reputation for effectiveness, professionalism, and accountability.

Currently, Alliance Africa is raising funds to support the following FINIDP initiatives:
• Livestock for Livelihoods
• Scholarships for AIDS orphans
• HIV/AIDS Awareness
• Malaria Prevention
• Environmental Conservation

Livestock for Livelihoods
Building on the success of other non-profits, FINIDP has developed a community-based livestock revolving project to alleviate poverty and malnutrition for Ugandan families. FINIDP provides qualified families with goats, pigs, cows, or chickens and then trains the families on proper animal care. Families are able to sell eggs, milk, or meat at the market to generate income or use the products to provide food for their families. In turn, they are required to give a certain number of offspring to other families in the community. FINIDP trains these new recipients, and the sharing cycle continues, multiplying the number of families who are served year after year. The livestock revolving project builds hope and self-reliance and provides families with self-sustaining sources of food and income. Thus far, Alliance Africa has provided goats to 25 families.

Prossy Katongole Mbabazi, Chairperson of the Nama Women’s Livestock Revolving Group and a recipient of two goats, reported the success of FINIDP livestock projects. “The women in Nama were starving without any source of income,” she said. “With the livestock project, I strongly believe that in a few years many families will be self-sustaining, and women will be able to buy modest clothes for their children. They will be able to educate their kids and, above all, supplement their diets. Before the livestock project, we had no unifying factor in our community. Now there is hope.”

Scholarships for AIDS Orphans
For the past two years, FINIDP has partnered with various organizations to give scholarships to children who have been orphaned by AIDS and other causes. This past year, Alliance Africa became one of those organizations, supporting 22 students through two projects, the Orphan Secondary Education Support Project and the Adopt-A-Student Program.

Alliance Africa and FINIDP work in close collaboration. In addition to screening beneficiaries, collaborating with local schools, and working with students’ families, FINIDP provides students with counseling, career guidance, and educational awareness about HIV/AIDS. Meanwhile, Alliance Africa provides funding for comprehensive educational support, covering the costs of tuition, books, uniforms, shoes, supplies, school lunch, and basic emergency health care. Without these comprehensive scholarships, many of these children could not afford to attend school.

Thirteen-year-old Frederick is one such student. Frederick lost both of his parents to AIDS in 2000 and 2001. Since then, he has been living with his uncle, a subsistence farmer, who supports eight other children. Prior to the support of FINIDP and Alliance Africa, Frederick was unable to attend school, but now he is back in school and studying hard. “I’m determined to give first priority to my education, so that I can change lives of other people in future,” he said. Frederick hopes to become a pilot.

Justine, 14, lost her father to AIDS in 2006. She now lives with her mother, brother and sister in a small village near Mukono, but her mother currently does not have a job. In primary school, Justine was always near the top of her class, but due to the family’s difficulties, she has been unable to attend—until this past year. “If this chance had not come,” she told us, “my education would have stopped.” Now, with the help of FINIDP and Alliance Africa, she is able to pursue her love for English and science. She hopes is to become a doctor or engineer.

HIV/AIDS Awareness
To prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Uganda, FINIDP has conducted a series of HIV/AIDS Awareness workshops in local schools and among community leaders. They have organized anti-AIDS clubs in schools to promote understanding and prevention, and they have also trained peer educators to share the knowledge with friends and families.

Thus far, FINIDP has educated over 1200 children in 5 schools and over 100 women in 4 villages. These women and children are encouraged to share their knowledge with their families and communities. As one Ugandan district commissioner said, “It is our prayer that FINIDP’s HIV/AIDS awareness programs will spread not only from school to school, but from person to person, district to district, across the country.”

Malaria Prevention
Malaria is the leading cause of death in the Mukono District, and children are especially vulnerable. FINIDP seeks to prevent malaria and its fatal effects through a series of prevention projects. Currently, FINIDP does not have funding for these projects, but they have detailed plans of action. In addition to educating families on ways to avoid and treat malaria, FINIDP hopes to prevent malaria by providing mosquito nets, offering medication for infected individuals, and reducing the number of brick-making pits that serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Environmental Conservation
Stone-mining and brick-making are two prominent industries in the Mukono district. They provide jobs to local residents, but they also harm the natural ecosystem and potentially put residents at risk. Because of these industries, many wetlands have become wastelands, and forests have been completely cleared or severely degraded in order to secure wood for brick-burning. FINIDP is working to educate local brick-makers and miners on the environmental effects of their work and to train them on alternative sources of energy for brick-burning. With adequate funding, FINIDP hopes to restore mined sites, wetlands, and upland forests by planting trees and filling excavated pits.

*Note: To ensure confidentiality and protect the privacy of students and their families, the names of beneficiaries have been changed.