ACT Uganda Blog

How do you make communities healthy? One way is through public health efforts which include awareness-building, education, encouragement, commitment - all things our ACT HEAL Team strives to achieve! Here is our latest HEAL Happenings Newsletter, created by Robin Stottlemyer, our US HEAL Team Leader. In it she describes the great work that our staff and Health Promotion Workers do. Read for yourself! Don't forget to check us out on our Facebook page: ACTUgandaUSA  

There is a unique and wonderful nonprofit, based in Portland Oregon, Chess For Success, whose mission is: "We use chess as a tool for building community, connection, and confidence."   (https://www.chessforsuccess.org/)  ACT has partnered with CFS to bring the program to Muko, Uganda. Muko is the first place CFS has been established outside the U.S.! In addition to their mission of building community, connection, and confidence, what will happen in Muko is learning of critical thinking, problem-solving and strategy which are elements that will be strong additions to the education there.  CFS provided 50 Chess boards and sets to ACT which we took to Uganda in August, 2022. Teachers from Muko High School are the coaches for the "club" under the excellent leadership of Mathias Atuheire, Science Teacher, and Rev Philip Ntwirenabo, Head Teacher. Interestingly enough, the leaders and coaches do not have to already know how to play chess to teach it to the students. The in...

 (December 2022) When Sue Waechter asked if I was interested in writing a post for the ACT blog to describe my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer living and working in Muko, my first thought was how would I ever be able to summarize the year and a half I spent in Muko in one blog post? With so many things happening in my there, what story should I try and tell? When I think back to my time in Muko, I always feel it is the story of a community that took care of me, taught me new things, and helped me to survive in an environment that was completely new to me. When I first arrived in 2018, I didn't know if I would be able to make it two years. My first evening there I sat in the grass staring at the lake and wondering how I could make it so long in a place so far away from home. Everyday felt like a struggle to navigate the difference between Uganda and my home (Texas), and at the end of most days I would only want to come home and be alone. After only a few weeks of living in Muko...

It is with a heavy sigh that I reflect on 2022 for ACT and what we, our Ugandan and US partners, accomplished. It has been a lot of work together but we have accomplished much. You will hear more about it in our beautiful Annual Report likely in March.  All that we accomplish and do on a regular basis is facilitated by our staff who work very hard to manage the programs day-to-day and our donors who provide the financial support necessary for the staff and programming. And, blessings on all the residents of Muko Sub County who benefit from ACT. Thanks to everyone and I pray that all will have a very Happy New Year! And, together we will make 2023 a very special 20th Anniversary to ACT Uganda!  

 Here are two wonderful videos from two girls sponsored by friends of ACT who share how they celebrate Christmas in Muko.  Precious Arinda is a girl aged 20 years. She is a double orphan (having lost both her mother and father) and was enrolled under the ACT Sponsorship program in 2014 when she was still a Primary 4 student (US 4th grade). She is sponsored by Diana Stubig who is an ACT US Board Member and Team Leader of the Uniquely Uganda Handcraft Program. Precious happened to be one of the most clever students as she scored a first grade in her Primary Leaving Examinations (Primary 7 US 7th grade). She performed very well in Secondary School . After she graduated from Senior 4 (US 11th grade), she went to obtain a certificate in nursing and only has 1 ½ years to complete! Precious is still under ACT's care until she completes her Certificate of Nursing. Here is an interview with Precious. Judith, ACT Staff Manager for HONORS is interviewing her. We apologize that the sound ...

2021 Summer ACT US Board Left to right: Bill Busch, Diane Busch, Robin Stottlemyer, Dave Molzahn, Sue Waechter, Lori Marsh, Karen Viele, Dave Viele, Lynn Pottenger, Diana Stubig and Suzanne Greenberg Missing: Dick Dolinski ACT US accomplishes all we do with over 200 volunteers - no one in the US is paid, we are all volunteers. Many of us are retired and many of us spend a sizable amount of time doing the work! Many of us are former professionals in our careers and in keeping with being "business-like" and efficient, we use lots of processes. I thought you might be interested in seeing one of those. Every month, each of the Team Leaders, prepare a summary of what has been going on for their team. We share these prior to the monthly ACT US Board meeting so that we don't spend time "reporting" during the meeting. This allows us to discuss more strategic things - like our Bold New Vision you read about last week! ACT US is blessed to have the most dedicated and know...

  ACT US Mission We work in partnership with ACT Uganda as they pursue their goals for the community development of Muko Sub County. ACT US Vision The ACT Uganda and ACT US partnership is one of support and solidarity, with the Ugandan partners leading the generation of ideas, development and evaluation of programs, and the generation of resources. These two new statements were adopted in 2021 for ACT US. As you can read, we are deliberately taking a following posture to our Ugandan partners. We have always tried to do this and sometimes been successful but often not, quick to offer our ideas and suggestions first. We have learned to trust that our friends in Uganda know best what they need and for now, we can help them achieve it.  Our vision is a real stretch in that we want to make ACT Uganda as financially self-sustainable as possible - no longer reliant on us in the US for nearly all of the funding that keeps the staff in place and the programs going.  Here is a vide...