Women and Girls Education & Empowerment in Uganda

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...

Thanks to our generous donors, The Angel Projects of America is currently sponsoring two young Ugandan women as they attend school to become a pharmacist and a nurse.  We are so happy to be able to provide these ladies with such wonderful opportunities, and they are excited to pay it forward as they return to their community with their new medical knowledge. 

Our first young lady has settled in to the pharmacy program at Fort Portal College of Health Sciences beautifully and has made new friends already.  She can now focus on her studies, secure in the knowledge that her first year of school is paid in full!  For a long time, she worried that her dreams would never come true.  She sends our donors her heartfelt love and appreciation for their faith in her.  She is so excited and grateful for all of the support.

Our second young lady started at Rugarama School of Nursing and Midwifery in February and is thriving.  She is very happy to keep our donors updated on her progress throughout the year and is grateful for the opportunity to learn a profession that will help her support her family as well as provide much needed medical care to her community.

Both of these young women are active participants in The Angel Projects' Saving Grace Project, and they are both planning to return to Rubuguri this summer to pass on their knowledge of First-Aid and healthcare to the younger girls in the program.  They are very excited to make a difference in their community!