Women and Girls Education & Empowerment in Uganda

The Saving Grace Project and the Elderly Project......it's so beautiful to see the interaction between these two projects and how they're benefitting all the women involved, both young and old.  

Currently, several young women from the village of Rubuguri are receiving training in first aid and basic healthcare through the Angel Projects Uganda's Saving Grace Project.  They then travel around the area to visit the elderly members of the community and provide them with the medical attention they so desperately need.  In turn, the young women are gaining valuable experience that will help them as they go on to nursing school or begin another career in the medical field.  The best part is seeing how the joy spreads as the different generations of women in Rubuguri get to know one another and develop relationships as they work together and help each other.  The women of this community are truly being empowered through these two projects.  The younger women are securing a better future for themselves and their families, and the older women are living out their final years in comfort and good health. 

It's wonderful to see what a difference just a small investment can make.  The Angel Projects is currently supporting two Saving Grace members who are working on degrees that will enable them to work in the medical field; one is a nursing student, and the other is attending pharmaceutical college.  Their futures look bright, and they're also giving back to their communities by helping teach other young women in the Saving Grace Project and by offering medical attention to the elderly members of the community.

Thank you so much for your support--you're making a big difference in the Rubuguri community through your generosity!

What an exciting summer!  The Angel Projects' team from the U.S. and Scotland is currently on the ground in Rubuguri, Uganda, for this summer's trip.  This year's big projects include conservation, women's empowerment, education, and supporting our elderly project. 

Danielle, our partner from Scotland, is busy this summer heading our conservation project, in which she is teaching the locals how to create ecobricks out of plastic bottles and other trash from around the village.  The villagers have been busily collecting garbage for months in order to start this project, and Danielle is now teaching them about the process of cleaning the trash thoroughly, packing the bottles tightly with trash, and adding concrete to make bricks that will be used to build benches for the local soccer field.  In addition to the ecobricks project, Danielle has also been teaching classes on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to the younger children in the village, showing them that every person in the community can play a role in the conservation and beutification of their environment.

Danielle has also been spending a lot of time this summer homeschooling Regina, a young girl who was taken in by Angel Projects Uganda after her parents could no longer care for her.  Regina is far behind in her education, and Danielle is helping her get caught up before the next school term begins; at that point, Angel Projects will be sending her to school.  Regina is one of nine children, and she will be the first one to attend school!  We are so happy with the progress she has made so far this summer, and she's also been seen passing her newfound knowledge along, teaching the English alphabet to younger children in the village.

Angel Projects would also like to introduce our newest volunteer joining us from the U.S. this summer--Tiana!  We are very excited to have Tiana bring her women's empowerment program, Free to Be Me, to the young women we work with in Rubuguri. The goal of the program is to teach these young ladies, who live in a culture that often treats its female members as "less than," that they are free to smile, free to dream, free to be strong, free to be humble, free to be loving, and free to be happy!  This past week, Tiana encouraged the girls to write down the name of the person they admire most and what it is about that person that makes them admirable.  The girls also created bracelets with words of empowerment that carry special meaning for them, which will serve as a reminder of who they are and who they can become.  We are so excited to see the continuation of these classes over the next several weeks.  We believe that a brighter future for these young women depends on their education and on building their confidence and determination. 

Finally, our volunteers have been actively engaged in helping out with the elderly program this summer as well.  They have visited several elderly community members who were in desperate need of bedding, food, and medical attention.  We are pleased to report that we are currently working to meet all of their needs through the hard work of our volunteers and our Ugandan partners.  Our elderly project is so important because the older people in Uganda don't have any programs like Social Security or Medicare, so if they have no family members to support them, they're on their own, and the result is that their needs often go unmet.  We feel very grateful to our donors, like you, that we have the funds necessary to assist the local community members who find themselves in this type of a situation.

Clearly, this has been a busy, fruitful summer, and it's not over yet!  Our team of volunteers and partners from the U.S. and Scotland will be continuing to work hard on their programs until the end of August.  After that, our Ugandan partners will take over and will continue to do the amazing, lifechanging work that we've always seen from them.

Thank you so much to our supporters for all you do!  Until next time...