Starting a nonprofit from scratch In case you’re new around here, we pronounce BOH like “Bow”. Besides any number of puns and play-on-words that BOH affords, BOH also rhymes with “Grow” and that’s what we’re talking about this month, July. July being the month we celebrate our birthday, the month our official non-profit status was granted. This July, BOH turned 6! Time to go BOH-nanas. Since birthdays bring on the nostalgia, we’ve decided to bring out the ol’ slide projector and give you a few behind-the-scenes memories of BOH’s growing up years: 2009 BOH became “official” in 2011, but the key relationships were formed a couple years before. Current Executive Director and Co-founder Natalie traveled to Uganda with another Co-Founder,...
Bet you don't know these 10 things about BOH in Uganda! Why do students shave their heads? What are the villages like? Where does US staff stay? Find out here! Area Size: WOCAP, our Ugandan partner organization began in one village, Namagera. Since then, WOCAP expanded to include women from two others, Bubugo and Nakulkwe (but BOH's Uganda office is still proudly located on Namagera’s main road)! These villages have people dispersed throughout wide rural areas and could include a few thousand people.ABOVE: BOH's sign on the main road in Namagera. BSSP Coach Emmanuel painted it himself! US Staff Visits: While in Uganda, we stay in a room next to Cathie, WOCAP founder & current Uganda BSSP Adviser. We enjoy sharing meals, watching soap operas,...
Sugar came up again when I spoke with Ahamed, our Beads Project Coordinator, and asked about the effects of the recent and serious drought in Uganda. Among other shortages, he told me that the women were having a hard time affording sugar. Since the 9 month drought, sugar prices doubled from 3,000 Ugandan shillings to 6,000 or even 7,000 shillings. In my “America-ized” mind, this didn’t mean much. In US dollars, the price of sugar went from $0.83 to $1.67 - pocket change in our understanding. Also, why even mention the price of sugar, if there were dire shortages of actual food?
Most of the 83 women we partner with in Uganda are MOMS! Not only are they moms, most are also single parents/grandparents with an average of 6 children under their wing. Needless to say, these women are strong heads-of-households that inspire both us at BOH and the children they care for. As one BSSP student, Christopher, writes in his yearbook statement: “Generally, what I hope to do when I am done with my studies is to look for a job and struggle to construct a house for my grandmother before I focus on my own life because she had for so long been there for me yet she had no money.” Need we say more?? (psst...You can read more quotes...
BOH started its mission of empowerment in 2011 and works tirelessly with our Ugandan friends and partners to end poverty in rural Uganda. In honor of our Ugandan friends and partners, we suggest two easy ways you can empower our friends in Uganda:
