Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite and transmitted to humans through thebites of infected mosquitoes. Symptoms of severe malaria include: fever and chills, impaired consciousness, convulsions, difficulty in breathing, anemia, jaundice and evidence of vital organ dysfunction.
Severe malaria can be fatal without treatment!
● There are 438,000 annual deaths from Malaria worldwide.
● 80% of those deaths occur in Africa.
● Children in Africa miss up to 50% of school days due to malaria.
● 7 out of 10 deaths every year are among children under the age of 5.
● Pregnant women are at high risks of death with their unborn babies.
● Uganda has the world’s highest malaria incidence, with a rate of 478 cases per 1,000 population per year and the Ministry of Health show that malaria is still the leading cause of death in Uganda, accounting for over 27% of deaths.
HOW WILL BUYING A BRACELET HELP TO PREVENT MALARIA?
When you buy one of our “I’m a little light” handmade bracelets, you are not only supporting the women who make the jewelries but also support the fight against Malaria. Little Light uses the profits from the bracelets to buy an organic mosquito-repellent soap and provide it to underprivileged families that live in Kampala malaria risk zones.
I LANDED IN UGANDA AT 4 AM AFTER A SIX-HOUR LAYOVER IN TURKEY, WITH HIGH FEVER AND A COMPLETELY VAGUE MIND. A 25 YEAR OLD, AFTER TWO VERY LONG TRIPS AND MANY SHORT ONES, WITH LOTS OF EXPERIENCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BUT THAT HAS NEVER BEEN TO AFRICA. A 25 YEAR OLD, THAT WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A DESIGN DEGREE BUT DECIDED ONE DAY THAT SHE WANTS TO GO IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DIRECTION AND WORK IN THE FIELD OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND HUMANITARIAN AID.
After a few months of searching for the right place, I found Little Light Uganda NGO, an organization operating in Namuwongo slum, Kampala – one of the hardest slum areas in Uganda and the world. So I notified the university, sold everything I own, moved out of my comfortable apartment in Tel Aviv, packed my bags, and flew to the beautiful African continent.
At the small reception area in Entebbe Airport, waiting to pick me up, was one of the organization’s local staff, standing with a huge smile, which I later learned to recognize as an identifying mark of Ugandan people. It was still dark when we made our way to the volunteer’s apartment, and there aren’t many street lights in Uganda, but I could already feel the bumpy roads and see, in the sunrise lights, the women preparing for work carrying huge baskets on their heads and tiny babies on their backs.
On my first day in Little Light, I’m being taken to a tour in Namuwongo. An incredibly big neighbourhood, thousands of narrow passageways in between small huts made out of timber and mud, full of garbage, the sewerage flowing in the open air, and small children running around between all of the above. After two long trips in India, I have seen poverty before, but the sights have managed to shake me up.
Our organization was established over 10 years ago by Israelis who saw the hard reality in Namuwongo and wanted to create a change for this community of amazing people who have nothing but a huge never-ending smile. They joined the local community and, together, they built this beautiful place that provides education, empowerment, and support to hundreds of children, women, and youth.
Our compound is located on the border of the slum. In the morning, it operates as a kindergarten and a school, in the afternoon it becomes a community center for our women empowerment group and youth program. Ugandan schools cost money, not a big amount in our world but way more than what a family living from 1-4$ a day can pay. That is why our entire operation is financed by private people with big hearts who “adopt” a child from afar and finance their school fees.
Our youth group goes through empowerment workshops and life skill classes, does community work projects and also get a safe place to socialize and do what they love most – dance!
Our amazing women empowerment group that was founded by Little Light’s children’s mothers is an incredible thing on its own. Women who went through so much, many who are refugees from former war zones and\or single mothers but still find the strength to move on and build better lives for them and their children.
Day after day they show up to our compound, they still strive for knowledge and we give them what we can with different life skills and empowerment classes. They also work together, to create their financial independence by making the “Umoja beads” which they then string together into beautiful traditional African jewelry.
Uganda, Little Light and the people have become a home for me. The place has entered so deep into my heart that when my 3 months of volunteering were coming to an end, I just couldn’t see myself leaving. So my family came to visit, we traveled around this beautiful country and then, they went back home and I stayed for 3 more months of volunteering.
The goal, of course, is that one day, this community will not need us anymore, that they will have the ability and skills to run their own programs and finance their own children’s schools. We aren’t there yet and that is OK but, we are thinking and working with them, hand in hand, together, trying to give access to the education, tools and skills that will enable the change to climb from them, their community and their culture.
For me, besides the hope that our organization provides, the most important part of our work is opening doors and possibilities for this amazing, capable community. Giving opportunities for people to grow, learn and create the life they want for themselves. We, me and you, we live in a world where no one thinks of the possibility that their children might not go to school, a world with compulsory education laws, where education is not a privilege but a basic right. And we all know that education is the only way to develop and succeed in our world.
Ever since I finished my volunteering time in Little Light, I joined other community development projects around the world but a huge part of my heart stayed in Uganda and so I continued volunteering with the organization the whole time. Today, three years later, I supervise the volunteer department and all projects run by our organization and I keep in touch with our staff, volunteers and beneficiaries.
After all my volunteering experiences and the beautiful human I encountered, came the realization that community development is my passion in life and also, the understanding that there are so many youths out there who wish to do, grow, develop, contribute and become active members of their societies but no one is willing to give them a fighting chance. Out of these realizations, I chose to dedicate my life to the hope that change is possible, doing work that pushes the world to become a better and more equal one, to the belief that creating opportunities will enable those young, capable and ambitious youths to develop themselves and their communities to the best places possible.
So today, three years after my first arrival in Uganda, I moved here to start my project – a social business that employs young adults from the slum areas of Kampala for a one year program where they get to earn their own living while going through a comprehensive social program and later, get assistance and guidance in the transition into higher education and the labor market.
Many say that my generation cares about nothing but watching TV and enjoying our privileges.
I try to live differently and I am not the only one. We are also a generation that wants to know, learn, do, protest and change and is willing to put in the time and effort required to do so. Not everyone of course but many. Younger and older people that choose to travel differently, travel while recognizing the value of the other culture, supporting the local community, respect it instead of trampling or ignoring it, travel and give back to the community.
I believe, with all my heart, that if there is a void or huge shortage in one place, it affects each and every one of us and we have the moral obligation to act. The American philanthropist Soros said, that humanity’s goal should be a community that understands that everyone, everywhere has the need for freedom, equality, and the opportunity to grow and develop. And believe me, until you see it with your own eyes you cannot understand real poverty and you cannot comprehend the true, unsettling nature of inequality. A life where education is a luxury and a shower, a pair of shoes, or a warm meal are not obvious things to have.
We all have the right to live in dignity regardless of where and when we were born, our gender, our religion, or the color of our skin. And, we all have the obligation to respect one another, to not disrespect, to cherish the differences. We have the obligation to keep our world as beautiful and diverse as it is while we also work and contribute to making it better, more equal, more accepting.
Is actually the warm home and meeting place of the Umoja women’s group, but not only- LL meant to empower underprivileged communities from Namuwongo Slum in Kampala, Uganda and operates several programs, such as: education, sponsorship, health, youth group and women’s empowerment group among others.
But who are the people who volunteer to support this amazing african community? Today we will get to know some of them.
Meet Anael and Elisheva who volunteered right up until the outbreak of the COVID-19. Despite the extreme situation they found themselves in, they decided to remain physically in Uganda until they were forced to return when a full lock down was announced in Uganda.
Thank you for your dedication and all the good that you have brought with you into Little Light.
Shiraz Arieli – Head of Volunteer Department
“My name is Shiraz, I’m 28 years old from Israel and I am the
Head of Volunteer Department at Little Light Uganda.I first arrived to Uganda 3 years ago as a volunteer.I ended up spending six months working at Little Light being in charge of several projects for the local community.The time spent at Little Light taught me so much more than I could have ever expected and reinforced my desire to continue working and growing in the fields of social and international development.While continuing to other voluntary projects around the world I chose to also accept the offer to continue volunteering with Little Light Uganda, as a Human resource manager at first.Today, three years later, I have made Africa and Uganda my home and I continue working with Little Light as the Head of Volunteer Department.”
Ofir Nissan – Co-Director
“I joined Little Light as a volunteer in 2013.
My initial plan was to stay for 2 months, but I fell in love with the place and ended up spending 7.While being in Namuwongo slum, I realized the most important asset Little Light has is its volunteers.Upon return home, I decided to take responsibility for everything that has to do with volunteer work. Along the years, I was able to establish volunteer teams that manage all aspects of the organization.My biggest joy is seeing volunteers before and after the volunteer experience.Working with our community in one of the poorest slums in the world, and also one of the most fascinating places on earth, teaches you a great lesson about humility, compassion and priorities. The challenges they face on a daily basis, and the varied and complex work they do, shapes them as human beings and gives them tools to achieve success in other endeavours along their paths.Alongside my incredible partners, we manage to lead Little Light toward supporting hundreds of people in need. I owe a debt of gratitude to all the incredible people who worked, and still work, with me on this project. This motivates me to set more ambitious goals, find ways to increase our capacity and spread our love and care further.In the picture: me and a sweet Ugandan boy named after me. People refer to us as “Big Ofir” and “Little Ofir”.”
Daniel Schechter
“I volunteered at Little Light Uganda about four years ago for about two and a half months as part of my post-army trip. During my stay in Uganda I took part in many projects: English lessons for children, a project to raise awareness of AIDS in Namuwongo Slum, construction of an ornamental garden and raising funds for the resumption of the clinic’s activities in the kindergarten. When I returned to Israel and processed the experience, I realized how much significant work I had done in such a short time and the urge to continue doing it only grew. I am currently in charge of the sponsorship program, and together with my team we are responsible for recruiting new sponsors for the kindergarten children and graduates, keeping in touch with existing sponsors and making sure all donations are received and get to the right places. Pictured are me and the girl Iv’e been sponsoring for the past year” 🌸😃
Guy Snir – Business Development Team Leader
“My vision is to lead Little Light to financial independence. The current situation, where a family living in Namuwango slum, and unable to afford medical care, a hot meal, or tuition for their children simply does not make sense; Mama Pendo website was created to market authentic African products produced by the Umoja group, it should be noted that all proceeds from all sales go directly to our community in Uganda. I have initiated a significant upgrade process for the sales site and I am working to open up international markets in order to create a brighter and better future. 🙏🏼🇺🇬🏡
Lior Gadidi – Head of a volunteer recruitment team
I have volunteered at Little Light Uganda 4 years ago. My main projects were Liter of Light (an open source design for a low-cost light tube that refracts solar light to provide daytime interior lighting), gardening, sexual education, and family planning.After I returned to Israel, I felt a big yearning inside of me to the community, friends, and the world view that I got to know during my time there. On top of that, I knew that there is a lot to do and the possible influence of one dedicated volunteer to the organization. Then I decided, with a little help from the volunteers department manager at the time, to stay close to the organization (even if it is from a 3000 kilometers away).For the 3 past years I am in charge of the wonderful Volunteer Recruitment Team, which helps to increase the demand to volunteer at LL around the world.For me, the most satisfying part of the job is to see the relationships and connections between the volunteers that we send to Uganda and the local community, and the two-way learning process that both sides are enjoying.Our daily work focuses on advertising the volunteer opportunities which LL offers, establish collaborations with other organizations and universities, and improve our visibility on social media.
For our new interview, we are switching things up a little; we talked with Julius, a beneficiary from Little light Uganda, about his participation in Little light’s youth group.
Tell us a bit about yourself
My name is Julius Tito Wambuzi. I am african, 20 years old and I live in the Namuwongo slum in Kampala, Uganda. I have two sisters (I had another sister who passed away when I was a child). My parents are from Eastern Uganda, Africa, and came to the city to find better work opportunities. They both work; my mom cooks and sells food to busy Kampalans, and my dad has two jobs, bodaboda rider by day and security guard by night. Despite working three jobs, it is still hard for my family to make ends meet. We do our best to get by. I wish we had more opportunities to uplift our life, but living in Namuwongo slum doesn’t make it easy. In fact, life in Namuwongo slum is the hardest kind of life I have ever lived — and still live.
Julius Tito Wambuzi
How is it to live in Namuwongo slum?
Imagine waking up in the morning in a house without clean water, shabby electricity, and very basic hygiene facilities. You still manage to get ready to go about your day. Now you open the door, and what do you see? An area that is completely neglected by the authorities, with no jobs, no access to quality medical care, and a skyrocketing crime rate. And if you do get a job, you’ll likely make less than two dollars per day. It’s no surprise that most of the people I know are being exposed to drugs, prostitution, violence, all kinds of petty crimes, and even child abuse. But in every darkness, there is light. Mine was called Little light Uganda.
Little light is a self-help community center located at the Namuwongo slums in Kampala, Africa. Established in 2007, it is offering free education and free medical services to the local community alongside various programs, such as a women’s empowerment – Umoja group, and a youth group named the Youth Spoon Group.
You joined Little light’s Spoon Youth Group — what has changed in your life since?
Before joining the Spoon Youth group, I was living the kind of life almost all the african youth and teens within the slum lived; I was going to school nearby, spending time with my friends and volunteering from time to time with a local organization. After I joined, I started spending more and more of my free time at the youth center, taking part in some of its activities (meetings, life skills sessions, etc). I also went ahead and offered to help the class teachers organize their classes. I was later given responsibilities as the organization office messenger.
All of this made me feel very good because I was helping others, and I was also learning administrative skills that I knew would be useful for my future. At times, I also earned some money that I used to buy some basic necessities like clothes and medicine. This new element in my life gradually changed my lifestyle altogether, and I found myself naturally working harder and harder to help the other slum african kids change their lifestyle to a better one; going back to school, stopping drugs & learning practical skills so they can be in a position to earn a decent living.
What do you think could have happened if you hadn’t crossed path with Little light Uganda?
I think that if I hadn’t joined the Spoon Youth group, I wouldn’t have got a chance to change my perspective on life and my priorities. I was given a chance to make a significant contribution towards changing the mindset of african young people like me living in the slum. Being part of the group also helped me a lot identify what I wanted to study and what I could do to bring change in the slum. Who knows how long it would have taken me to figure this all out by myself.
Celebrating a birthday at Little light center!
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
I hope to be studying Motion Graphics & Design at university, and later on start my own company that will mainly focus on telling stories from the Namuwongo slum through video coverage, photography, and books. I want to help further ideas and innovative solutions to the problems faced by the people living in the slum. I believe my work will help solve the challenges of not only the Namuwongo slum but also of other slums in the world e.g in Jamaica, Kenya, India, etc. And after establishing my slum media company, I will get back to study music, entrepreneurship & social work.
We wish Julius good luck in all his future endeavors, as we are sure a bright future awaits him!
Six months ago I sat with a Life Coach, Andi Saitowitz, to unfold my idea and share my short term and long term vision with her. I explained to her how I envision MyBeadBox starting out as a store that sells boxes with beads to mix and match, but eventually I foresee this as a platform for collaborations. While putting together my website, I made sure to mention this on my page so that it’s out there and google crawlers would know.
Time went by, we all experienced some delays with the pandemic vacation, but I leveraged this time to get all my assets in place. When my website was up and ready, I used an old offer from an SEO expert who told me: “when you’re ready, shoot me your website and I’ll give it a look”. So I updated Avner Greenwald, my SEO expert from WadiDigital, to have a look at my site and he came back with a list of quick wins. Most of them were easy to take care of, but one required a phone call. Avner and I spoke for about 20 minutes, and in those 20 minutes, Avner mentioned that he is also advising a non-profit organization named Mamapendo, who creates jewelry out of handmade beads made by Umoja women from the Namuwongo slum in Kampala Uganda. Mamapendo aims to improve the lives of refugee women from war-ridden territories and single mothers striving to give their children a proper education.
Avner made the intro and the following week Guy Snir and I met to talk business.
I looked at Mamapendo beads and saw a lot of potential to include their beads in MyBeadBox sets to create a new style of necklace. I took one necklace home to play around with and what came out of it is a new product called Mamapendo Inspiration.
$10 of all Mamapendo Inspiration sales on Mybeadbox.co will go towards Mamapendo and the Umoja tribe, supporting the underprivileged community in the Namuwongo slum in Kampala, Uganda. Check out the bead set here.
About Mamapendo
Mamapendo means The Mother of Love in the Kiswahili language and it is a handcrafted jewelry brand made by the Umoja African women and the name of an empowerment group from Namuwongo slum, Kampala, Uganda. This initiative was established in an effort to empower women of the Umoja Tribe and improve their lives, some of whom are refugees from war-ridden territories of Uganda and some of whom are single mothers struggling to give their children a proper education. Mamapendo aims to help the women meet their first and most basic need, which is to build their financial and social strength and independence. To achieve this goal, Little Light Uganda NGO invited the mothers of the children benefiting from the Little Light Education Program and initiated the Umoja empowerment group. The women chose to call this group “Umoja”, meaning “Unity”.
The group works in three main activities:
Rolling of Beads: Women create ecological jewelry from recycled newspapers and market it both in Uganda and abroad.
Health Care: Women attain treatment and health education regarding reproductive health, sanitation, and raising healthy children.
Microfinance: Women save and take microloans for their personal economic development.
This peer group has become a place for the members to socialize with the other women in the community, a place for sharing experiences and ideas. It allows them to gain dignity and self-respect and to build a better social status. These amazing, strong, inspiring women manage to uphold, under the harshest of circumstances, a smile and hope in the face of all difficulties. They gather every afternoon in the space of the “Little Light” kindergarten and create, one by one, the beads that are then strung, with love and care, into these unique jewelry pieces.
About MyBeadBox
MyBeadBox was founded with the aim to give women a feel-good product that allows them to spice up their look in seconds and walk out of their home feeling elevated. The basic model of MyBeadBox is a box with a selection of beads and necklaces that can be mixed and matched to add a splash of color to women’s everyday style. MyBeadBox is a model meant for duplication and extension and is always on the lookout for collaborations that will benefit the greater good like underprivileged populations or recycled beads that help clean our planet. If you would like to contact MyBeadBox for collaboration ideas, please write to: partner@mybeadbox.co or fill out the form on the contact page.
Littlelight.volunteers@gmail.com
