The Issues

Our Impact

Health Care

When Give Us Wings arrived in Uganda, we found several isolated communities with no medical facilities within walking distance. As a result, people weren’t able to access proper health care. Children weren’t given immunizations; mothers-to-be did not receive pre-natal care; women delivered their babies at home or, worse, on the road while trying to get to a clinic. The people were suffering from a variety of diseases and conditions including malaria, typhoid, HIV/AIDS, hookworm and schitotosomiasis. The poor health of the people made it difficult for men and women to go to work to support their families and for the children to attend school. The overall well-being of the communities was incredibly vulnerable.

Provide Clinics and Health Outreaches

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Give Us Wings staff met with members of community-based groups in these rural areas and discussed with them how best to improve the health of their communities. We held health camps and people from near and far would wait in lines for hours to be seen by the medical professionals who had volunteered their services. Group members eventually concluded that they needed local clinics that would provide affordable, quality health care. St. John's Kayoro Health Center was born. 

Read about our impact on health care

Education

A primary school education is not a given in Uganda. In order to attend school, a child’s family must pay fees and purchase uniforms, shoes, and school supplies. If the family is unable to pay the children are often chased away. Very poor families are usually able to send only one or two of their children to school. In those situations, the family usually decides to send the boys. If girls are able to attend school, it is often derailed by a forced marriage or a pregnancy. The lack of education in general, and especially for girls, results in a myriad of problems. People with little education earn less money to support their families and they are less likely to seek medical treatment for themselves and their children.

Provide Educational Access

KidsWaitingOutsideSchool

Our Family to Family Program helps students get a high quality boarding school education. Children are more likely to be successful in school if they are living in a stable, nurturing environment. The program also supports the students' families with access to health care, educational opportunities, and assistance with economic initiatives. This holistic approach helps the whole family succeed.

Read about our impact on Education

Economic Sustainability

Most people living in these communities are subsistence farmers, often not raising enough to adequately feed their families. They did not have the resources to improve their output and lacked training in organic farming techniques that produce more nutritious crops. Many people were interested in starting or expanding their small businesses to better support their families, but they had no business training or money to do so. The lack of training and money to start new businesses made it virtually impossible for the families in these communities to work their way out of poverty.

Provide Business Training and Mentoring

EconomicSustainability

Give Us Wings' Entrepreneurial and Livelihoods Development Program (ELD) is designed to help end poverty by giving our partners the tools they need to start successful and sustainable businesses. Our focus, although not exclusively, is on helping women and girls achieve gender equality and become economically empowered. Initially we assisted individuals with grants and micro loans. The ELD focus has now shifted to registered cooperatives that work together to identify business enterprises and increase incomes, thereby positively affecting entire communities.

Read about our impact on Economic Sustainability