Almost exactly one year ago I visited Uganda to set up an evaluation for HELP International. As you can tell from that blog post, I was again captivated by the life and beauty and humanity that are in abundance here. Re-reading that post made me laugh at how mystic I am about Uganda.
The truth is, prior to last year I wondered if I had simply romanticized the time I spent here in 2008. Maybe because it was my first job in development or because it was my first time to Africa or because it was my first time in an equatorial climate or, or , or. I wondered if I simply built up the beauty of this place in my mind. But my week in Uganda last year was enough for me to realize that there really is something about Uganda that makes me unusually happy. I told my friends here that I would be applying for jobs and knew I would be back soon. Now, a year later, here I am.
I was fortunate enough to get a fellowship with the Global Health Corps. GHC is trying to build a “global health movement” through connecting young professionals from around the world. Being a GHC fellow is awesome because I now have a crazy talented network of people with backgrounds as architects, IT specialists, fundraisers, doctors, communications officers, agronomists, researchers and so on. You can read more about GHC here.
Anyway, GHC paired me with my partner Edmund Okiboko, who is amazing. We are Project Managers for the Mpoma Community HIV/AIDS Initiative. Mpoma was started in 1999 by a group of HIV infected and affected individuals who wanted to build something better for their community.
At the newly-founded Mpoma Community HIV/AIDS Initiative’s first meetings, it was agreed that the highest concern for the members was their children’s education. Many of these children were not attending public primary school because they were too weak to access the distant schools. Those children who were able to get to those schools could not cope with the stigma and discrimination in the public schools because of their association with HIV/AIDS. With donated funds and land from the members themselves, the Initiative spearheaded the construction of a simple building to house a daycare centre for their children, which later evolved into the Johnson Nkosi Memorial Primary School. Slowly the initiative took on more projects in savings, livelihoods, health, and agriculture to support the families of students. Thus, what began as a small group of people meeting under a mango tree, has blossomed into a dynamic organization that provides quality primary education, counseling, health services, vocational training, and secondary school sponsorship to students and agricultural training, savings services, health outreach, and IGA start-up resources to the community.
Mpoma has inspiring board members and a dedicated staff, but lacks the management systems that are needed to take it to the next level. Edmund and I are tasked with trying to introduce some of these systems. These first couple of weeks we have been working on implementing planning systems including: creating a work plan, outlining budgets, assessing need, assessing profitability and cost/benefit analysis. There is soooo much work to do. Mpoma is crazy and inspiring and unpredictable and challenging.
I work with fun people. We always seem to get into lively debates about marriage or diet plans or music. They are people I would choose as friends, which makes me feel really lucky to get to work with them. I have felt so welcomed. In fact, the first day Edmund and I arrived, twin goats were born; one with blond spots the other with black spots. They named them after us.
