So! Sorry I've been so horrific lately at keeping up with this blog but you can blame The Hunger Project! They're working me hard and it's been awesome so far!! I've interviewed about 30 people and will be going on an overnight this week to Kiboga for two nights to talk to a TON of people since my sole person for being all the way over there and staying overnight is to talk to EVERYONE for 48 hours more or less aha. YES.
The reason I entitled this success is because some the THP Uganda staff has been doing some amazing stuff and I've got to witness it! There is an Epicenter called Wakiso near Kampala that is in stage four: Self-reliant, however, a lot of the members of that epicenter have to travel VERY far and transport is expensive and not easy so they decided to start another epicenter for their community called Namayumba where I've been spending the bulk of my time cause they are really getting down to work! Right now they are in phase one, which is mobilization, of people AND materials. The local government must first approve the THP methodology and project before anything can start and they have. They must also commit some money and materials to the building of the Epicenter which is the central part of THPs approach, gives the villagers ownership of it, and acts as a symbol to the government that their community is ready and willing to work hard to improve their quality of life. The epicenter includes a medical clinic, meeting space, pit latrines, rural bank, farmland, water tanks, nursery school, food bank, and other stuff. So right now the THP field staff, Joel who've I've mainly been working with, has been going around to different villagers and groups learning about THP or already associated with THP to get them to commit to giving money to the building project and/or materials such as lake sand, hardcore, stones, river sand, truck transport, etc. In just a week we have 260,000 shillings committed, about 140 trips of river sand, bricks, and hardcore. Now they just need to get river sand and more stones but its amazing how generous these people are towards this project. One man contributed 100 trips of river sand from his pit for free, as well as his own labour. The entire staff has been humbled by this communities commit to THP and their vision.
Speaking of being humbled. Today I was talking with my colleague Paul who works in Monitoring and Evaluation and he asked how I heard about THP and THP Uganda, so I began to explain to him about Feel Good and what we do and how it started and its ideologies and what not and he was literally in awe. He was so touched and excited and happy that there were these "very young" students in the U.S. all just selling sandwiches to give money to The Hunger Project. He couldn't believe it. We then proceeded to watch some FG videos and another THP staff member came to watch too and he just kept saying "I am so humbled." I wish there was a way we could talk to all the staff members across the world about what we do and thank them because it honestly made their day to find out about these American students who are ending world hunger one grilled cheese at a time and it also made MY day because 1) I got to talk about FG and how awesome it is and how much I love it and 2) It was even more exciting to see their positive responses to FG and it just made me so happy and so excited. I just wanted to watch FG movies with them the rest of the day. Paul even said he wants to write a letter to FG thanking them and says I have to give it to them! YES!
Anyways, as you can probably tell I love working with THP Uganda, it's literally a dream come true. It's a TON of hardwork and I'm working 10-12 hour days but most of the time I'm just talking to people about their lives and their work and how amazing they are so it's really fun! I'll keep you updated on what I found out!!! Isn't it great to see how everyones working together towards the same vision??? YES...it's happening people...we're ending chronic persistent world hunger in our lifetime. More than EVER I am so convinced of that.
p.s. check out feelgoodworld.org and/or thp.org
peace, love, and grilled cheese
Sammy Mac
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