Little Angels – Meet the people who support the Namuwongo slum community

Guy

December 18, 2020

Little Light Uganda

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.

תמונה יכולה לכלול: ‏‏‏2‏ אנשים‏, ‏‏כולל ‏‎Shiraz Arieli‎‏‏, ‏‏תקריב‏‏‏‏

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.”

תמונה יכולה לכלול: ‏‏‎Ofir Amani Nissan‎‏‏

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”.”

תמונה יכולה לכלול: ‏‏‏3‏ אנשים‏, ‏‏כולל ‏‎Daniel Shechter‎‏‏, ‏אנשים מחייכים‏‏‏

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”

תמונה יכולה לכלול: ‏‏אדם אחד‏, ‏‏מחייך‏, ‏‏‏זקן‏ ו‏תקריב‏‏‏‏‏

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.

Are you ready for a life changing experience?

Littlelight.volunteers@gmail.com

In the beginning of the general Covid19 lockdown in Uganda, the main concern of LL was that big parts of the community living in Namuwongo slum would starve due to inability to work and make a living. Therefore, our organization collected and transferred financial support to over 300 families that we work with while continuing, despite the crisis and the shutdown of our programs in Uganda, to promote organizational optimization processes in order to be as ready as possible for the day after Covid19.

The current situation in Uganda is that all schools are still closed and social gatherings are banned although some restrictions have been eased. In the past month, the complete lockdown has been released remaining only with a night curfew, public transport has been allowed to operate and most businesses have returned to limited activities..

Although COVID-19 has been slow to take root in Africa, cases are now spreading rapidly. Taking into consideration that high numbers of the African population in general, and the Ugandan population in particular, live in crowded household and communities, the number of new infections and deaths is expected to continue rising on a daily basis due to the continued contact, both direct and indirect, between infected and uninfected members of the population.

Figure 1. The trend of COVID 19 in Africa: 17-29 March, 2020.
Data source: WHO COVID Database, accessed April 6, 2020.

At a continental level, Africa is highly vulnerable to the spread of the COVID-19, also due to the fragile public health systems and close ties (in terms of trade, investment and finance, education and security cooperation) with China. According to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the unfolding coronavirus crisis could exacerbate Africa’s already stagnant growth. UNECA further anticipates a decline in employment by 48%, and 48% decline in the size of the population expected to move out of poverty. The continent will require US $10.6 billion in unanticipated increases in health spending to curtail the virus from spreading, while on the other hand revenue losses could lead to unsustainable debt.

Lastly, and importantly for medium and long-term impacts of COVID-19, it is possible that the crisis will undermine progress on financing and implementation of SDGs, and Africa Agenda 2063. UNECA estimates that US $100B is needed to bridge funding gap and propel the Decade of Action. Resources are likely to be diverted from implementation of SDG-related activities to economic recovery during and following the COVID-19 crisis.
4 UNECA, 2020. https://www.uneca.org/stories/eca-estimates-billions-worth-losses-africa-due-covid-19-impact
5 MFPED, 2020.
6 URA, 2020. Impact of corona virus on revenue performance.

For Uganda specifically, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MFPED) provided preliminary assessment on March 20, 2020 of the short-term impact of the pandemic, anticipating the following:
(i) Increase in the number of poor people by 2.6 million;
(ii) Significant deterioration of the current account balance owing to expected severe reduction in exports, tourism receipts and workers remittances;
(iii) Domestic revenue shortfall of Shs288.3 billion in FY 2019/20 and Shs350 billion in FY 2020/21 due a reduction in economic activity. Uganda Revenue Authority anticipate a loss of UGX 116.26 billion in customs revenue by the end of June due to this crisis alone, expanding the overall revenue loss UGX 513.26 billion by close of June 20206.
(iv) Heightened pressure on fiscal space as a result of additional expenditure to address rapid response in the health sector and livelihood support for affected persons.

Figure 2. Trend of cases of COVID-19 in Uganda.
Data source: WHO COVID-19 Database, accessed April 7, 2020.

Since the Covid19 outbreak in March 2020, Little Light children center has been closed according to the limitations and the school system being shut down. In the past six months, the children are without an educational framework, and the youth group and women groups cannot gather in our center. In addition, a large part of our sales channels were also shut down, and the volunteers in the field were forced to return home due to the lock down.

The announcement of the opening of the borders to tourists was circulated last week. Uganda has opened its doors to tourists, and schools are likely to return to normal starting next year.
Little Light Children center will return to full operation in the upcoming months.
The volunteers and staff members have been preparing over the past few months for the day after. This is with the aim of returning to activity as soon as possible, so LL would continue to support the community living in the Namuwongo slum in Kampala.

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Little Light is a Non-Governmental organization (number #9225) registered under the Republic of Uganda Non-Governmental Organizations registration act, CAP.113

office.littlelight@gmail.com