I am so excited to see this great project taking shape. The members of LiA Kireka are starting a mushroom farm at their center. Mushrooms have become very popular in Uganda and are served now in most of the hotels and restaurants. They have mostly been imported at a high price but [...]]]>

Dark room construction

I am so excited to see this great project taking shape. The members of LiA Kireka are starting a mushroom farm at their center. Mushrooms have become very popular in Uganda and are served now in most of the hotels and restaurants. They have mostly been imported at a high price but there is a growing trend to grow them locally. And even the local residents have started buying the locally grown mushrooms and using them in their cooking.

They have used a small grant from Life in Africa USA to build the dark room needed to grow their gardens. They plan to set up around 400 gardens and are very confident that the enterprise will be profitable. The monies earned will help to support the center and will also go into a profit sharing fund that will be shared equally will all the participating members. There are around 30 members participating (mostly women).

You can read more about the workings of the Community MushroomCultivation Project and follow the discussions and planning. We will also be posting updates here. There is also more information and photos on their project page  with a photo of an actual garden. Check it out, you might find it really interesting.

And while you are there, why not take a few minutes and make a small donation. It only costs $1.50 to start a garden. We are helping them to raise enough for 400 gardens. That’s less than the cost of a cup of coffee but the impact it can have on this community is huge.

She was personally touched by the Haiti earthquake crisis because she had friends who were there. Fortunately, they were saved but their [...]]]> A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Amy Wolf,  an amazing young college student with a vision to make the world a better place and the heart to make it happen.

She was personally touched by the Haiti earthquake crisis because she had friends who were there. Fortunately, they were saved but their world has been destroyed and she decided to do something to help. As a talented singer and songwriter, she naturally put her talents to work by writing this moving song and creating this amazing video with the help from some friends.

The hype has stopped, the media has gone on to find newer stories to report on BUT the people of Haiti are still there. They are still living in the streets, they still need food and water and they will need a lot of help to rebuild after this devastating event. Amy’s project hopes to help them with their basic needs as the long road to recovery begins.

Amy exemplifies our belief that TOGETHER we can create a better world and make a difference in the lives of those in need.  Please join us in supporting this worthy project by making a donation or by simply passing this video on to everyone you know.

On my last visit to Uganda, I spent almost six weeks working with the women of Kireka to help them set up a program of group production so they could make their beads and jewelry faster. It was an amazing experience and I think that I learned as much as they did. They are an [...]]]>

On my last visit to Uganda, I spent almost six weeks working with the women of Kireka to help them set up a program of group production so they could make their beads and jewelry faster. It was an amazing experience and I think that I learned as much as they did. They are an amazing group of women and we  can all learn so much from them about resilience, determination, and how to survive in a world where the odds are stacked against you.

Before, the women all worked on their own at their homes. They struggled to find the paper, the supplies, and the time to create their jewelry.  And it was difficult to get the jewelry to have any consistency. Lengths were different, colors were different, stringing methods were different and it was impossible to count on any consistent quantities. But, the new program has them coming to the Kireka center for a few days each week to work together as a group. In this way they can create necklaces that are all the same length and the same style. They can create bracelets that are all the same size. And they can have access to supplies that make the job a whole lot easier.

But the group production also offers something else that I had not thought of. It offers them an opportunity to socialize. Their lives in the camp are hard and at home there is always so much work to do to maintain their families. But at the center, sitting on mats working in this group, they can talk, laugh, share stories, ask each other for advice, and just be friends for a few hours.  Sometimes they sing together, sometimes one stops to nurse a hungry baby, and sometimes they cry together over some recent tragedy that has occurred. They do all this while creating the beautiful jewelry that we hope to sell for them to make their lives better. And as I sat on the mats watching them work, I was amazed at how much joy they were able to find in just coming together to work.

I hope you will visit ourCraft Shop to see what they have been able to create.