3 years ago I spent a month in Uganda in a rural village called Bulyantette working with a locally run charity called Hope Line. Both the director of this organisation, Tony, a local from the village, and their work astounded me. Never in my life have I met someone as dedicated to the welfare of every single member of the village, from making sure every child can be taught at school, to covering a medical bill of those who cannot afford it, despite earning very little himself.

Hope Line engages in bringing hope to abandoned, at-risk women and children, in and around the District, by empowering them by building and running schools, a medical centre, a microfinance scheme so that women can become independent and start local businesses from their crafts, and most importantly engages in changing attitudes. Just like the majority of the men in the village, Tony grew up with an alcoholic father who neglected his family and was rarely around. His mother died when he was six, tearing away the only stability in his life, leading him to have to work day and night at a car wash to make enough money to survive, living in extreme poverty, and therefore not being able to attend school. When Tony grew up, he started Hope Line to dedicate his life to all the others in the village who have faced the same thing and are growing up in extreme poverty.

What I found the most remarkable aspect of Hope Line when I visited, was Tony's realisation that it is changing attitudes, not only building amenities which was going to help improve people's lives. He started a boys' group, which meets weekly to discuss how men should treat women and encourage respecting women as their equals, a huge milestone in a community where it is normal to rape and beat their wives daily, and then abandon them after having an average of 8 children for the women to look after on their own. He also despised any form of corruption, in a place where bribery is normal.

This is one of many future fundraising projects I am doing for Hope Line, and though money is needed on a general basis for everyday projects such as building houses (mud huts), buying medicines and more, the money from this particular project is going to build a new computer classroom in order to further empower local women that are currently reliant on insecure income from agriculture that depends very much on volatile conditions such as weather and market prices - so that they can apply for higher skilled jobs as admin staff and more, as learning basic computer skills are essential these days for many industries. A few months ago unfortunately this classroom got burned down due to a local fire, meaning the village does not have the money to rebuild this amazing project, and hence your donation is vital to ensure this project can be restarted.

These projects take a lot longer to complete in places of extreme poverty as they are so expensive and Tony as well as others gain only little money from farming practices to pay for them. Therefore, your generous donations would be making a huge difference.

Thank you so much. Our Facebook page

Aanchal - UK Ambassador for Hope Line Uganda