Restore hope - Support & educate a girl in Uganda

This quarter, the LEAD team has been busy working with the girls to develop their leadership skills. Before the term began, we created a new and improved leadership curriculum covering topics such as; leadership traits, communication styles, and public speaking. The girls have been loving the sessions, especially one session in which they had the opportunity to chat with a local role model named Harriet Anyango.

Harriet was a beneficiary of FICH's secondary school girls program when she attended Iceme Girls SS. Her participation in the program helped her to become a leader in her school and attend the No.1 university in Uganda, Makerere University. She has now since graduated with a degree in business and entrepreneurship and begun working with various youth empowerment programs in Northern Uganda. Harriet was invited to speak with the girls about her story and answer their questions about being a leader. 

We are extremely proud of Harriet and all the girls currently particpating in the LEAD program. They have all shown improvement in their self-confidence, communication skills, and ability to express their ideas. This term, the girls will have the opportunity to showcase these skills to the broader community in a public speaking competition. During the competition each girl will present a 5 minute speech to judges and an audience. Also invited are other local role models and even a Member of Parliament. 

The LEAD team is also planning for the next term. The topic for Term 2 will be self-awareness and the sessions will guide the girls through emotional intelligence, reflective journaling, and understanding your own strengths and weaknesses. These topics will be quite new to the girls and we look forward to sharing their progress with you!

We closed out 2018 with an exciting event for all of our mentees, a business pitch competition! Over the past few months, our Senior Mentor, Felix, has been working with all of the girls on topics such as: business planning, marketing, and financial management. The sessions were very interactive and so we chose to showcase what the girls had learned with a business pitch competition. During the competition, 19 girls presented their business ideas to a panel of judges via a 2 minute business pitch. Business ideas ranged from tailoring, soap making, to artistry and tree farming. Each girl stood confidently before the judges and demonstrated her busines acumen, but only three would go home winners.

The girls were judged on the innovation of their business idea, their own understanding of the business idea, and their level of professionalism. After scores were tallied and some deliberation was held, the three winners were announced. In first place was Sara with her crafting business, in second place was Monica with her tree nursery business, and in third place was Robinah with her soap making business. 

Instead of giving each winner a simple cash prize, FICH's senior mentors will visit them at their homes and help them to create a start-up budget. With this budget, FICH will then purchase the materials with the girls so that they learn where to access the materials and how to negotiate prices. 

We are very proud of all of our mentees! They have all showed us how innovative and determined they are to make their community a better place. We look forward to continuing this work in 2019 and being able to add more girls to the program.