In the summer of 2006, I was on a trip led by Compassion International to visit with the children I sponsored in Uganda. My American view of poverty did not fully prepare me for what I would see. The destruction from war, families broken apart, raw sewage running down streets where children played and where we walked. I expected to see some level of poverty -- but not this.
One year later, I returned to teach computer classes in Southern Uganda. We traveled to Northern Uganda so we could get a complete picture of why so many had fled to the south. While there, we were able to visit an internally displaced people (IDP) camp.
Our guide told us of the atrocities committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony. The devastation was everywhere. Walking through the IDP camp was a shock. Ten thousand people crammed into tiny huts, just a few feet apart. Some families were living within a 10-foot diameter, smokey hut, because their cooking fires were indoors.
Walking through the camp, that’s when I saw her: a young, beautiful Ugandan girl, probably no more than ten-years-old. Her eyes echoed back the same darkness and suffering I’d seen in so many faces in that camp.
The look in her eyes was empty. Hopeless. Like a flower who’s never seen the sun but keeps straining for some glimpse of hope.
Imagine two million people ripped from their homes, forced to live in internment-like conditions, and then, being freed to return to...nothing.
The Lutheran World Federation gave many of the families seeds for starting crops, but no infrastructure. No way of rebuilding their lives again.
I knew we had to do something to help Uganda. This sparked the start of Outreach Uganda.
We are a Colorado-based, Ugandan-led 501(c)(3) organization that works behind the scenes to provide key support to Ugandans and our projects. We personally spend time in Uganda meeting with people in-country so we can better see and understand what’s needed and wanted locally from Outreach Uganda.
Let’s be clear: there are many organizations that offer child sponsorship, champion fair trade ecommerce, and host short-term trips to countries in need. So, what makes Outreach Uganda different?
In short, it’s not about Outreach Uganda. It’s about shining the light on what Ugandans are doing in and for Uganda.
Many Ugandans faced atrocities in the IDP camps. That was the darkness, but now, we get to help shine the light through our work and partnerships.
We are helping real people, with real stories of tragedy, reclaim hope. Many Ugandans are eager to become entrepreneurs. They know jobs in Uganda are scarce and they must work to create their own positive future. Outreach Uganda provides the financial and organizational support to help these amazing families build a stronger, more self-sustaining future.
Could the transformation happen faster if we were the ones building all the infrastructure? Maybe, but that’s not the point. Again, we are working together to empower Ugandan families and communities to be truly self-sustaining. We want to help them be the hero of their own success story!
We strive to work with Ugandans who have this drive to help themselves. We strive to find U.S. donors, partners and supporters who want to help make this happen for as many Ugandans as possible.
Our biggest celebrations are when families don’t need our support anymore. It means our work was effective in helping build a self-sustaining community with a better way of life.
And that’s what makes Outreach Uganda unique.
We understand there’s no shortage of nonprofit organizations you could support. Your trust and our work deserve full transparency about the financial activities of Outreach Uganda. This is why we stand in integrity.
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