"FRIENDS UNDER ONE SUN"
Bronwyn "My passion is to help raise funds to provide support for young people to realise their dreams in Uganda, specifically projects that raise the whole community up towards living their full potential."
Project 1. Munno - Literacy Project
Herbert "Last year we started a literacy program which today has come to be known as ‘Munno’ in English meaning ‘my buddy or my mate’. The program believes Literacy is the foundation for emotional and physical well-being, intellectual growth, and economic security. The right to read and write is a fundamental human right and belongs to all people.
Our program encourages sharing stories, building community, and cultivating a love of reading and writing to help literacy skills grow stronger. Literacy to us means reading, writing, speaking, and creating. We focus on outlets for creative expression, the value of the read aloud to immerse children in language and reading, and ways to amplify young people's stories to dignify their experience and give them a voice in the world. The power of people’s own stories and a wide range of diverse children’s literature are cornerstones of our program.
As of last year we started out with one primary school and one high school, doing literacy activities. We engaged 50 primary school learners in fun literacy activities and storytelling sessions. This was aimed at giving the learners a fun and memorable reading experience. In the high school, we engaged 40 young adults in games and fun activities that encouraged them shift their attitude towards literacy in general. That is from what is considered a boring activity to a fun and a lifelong activity they could engage in. During these sessions, we witnessed the liberating power of literacy. We experienced the power in our own individual stories. And this is why we started out; we view literacy as a means to an end. Through literacy learners are able to unlock their potential; we are able to address our society’s most challenging issues.
We want to make our society a better place, we want to make the time spent in school to matter, we want to make books accessible to all, we want to bring literacy those that may never make it to schools and we want to give a platform for everyone to express themselves. But it’s difficult and expensive work."
The Munno Team
Project 2. Little Lambs Early Learning Centre
Barbara "Little Lambs Learning Centre was birthed out of the great need in our village Senge. As we interacted with our neighbours giving out food packages and whatever little financial help we could here and there we realised it would never be enough. If the little children we saw grew up to be exactly like their parents struggling just to put food on the table as the vicious cycle dictates through illiteracy then whatever help we were giving was not making any real lasting impact.
The importance of early childhood development and learning is well known in the western world with the first 5 years of a child's life having the greatest impact on many outcomes.
My husband and I decided to step out in faith and reach out to the younger generation by offering a quality educational foundation with the hope of correcting the problem from the grassroots.
We hope with the opening of our early learning centre that this could be the start of even bigger things for these children...
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
This is our first step but our dream is to not only offer a great foundation for early learning but keep these children in school through sponsorship and the help of friends.
As an integral part of our centre we are building a playground that will allow the children to learn through play in a safe and protected environment.
Our dream is to provide an environment that will give them the best chance of getting the most out their early educational experience while offering financial relief to their parents and the opportunity for young mothers to work and strive to fulfil their own goals and dreams.
Our mission is to see that even the little ones who would not have stood a chance before are given that first push that will propel them further than they or their parents could ever have dreamed"
Project 3. Healing Harvest Farms
Frank “ There isn’t sustainable success unless with a team. Moving from Me, Myself and I to We, Others and Us"
Healing Harvest Farm is being developed as a model farm to promote farming education programs with leading agricultural experts using best practises in the growing of sustainable crops, hence eliminating inefficient and rudimentary methods of production.
Healing Harvest Farms aims to involve the whole community providing them ready and diverse market platforms for their produce and equipping them with self sustainable skills so as in turn to support their families through education and basic needs.