In July 2007, Little Light was founded as a self-help community hall in Namuwongo Zone B, one of Kampala, Uganda’s biggest and most impoverished slums. The program is run by Little Light UG, a neighborhood voluntary non-profit that was naturally born out of the community.

Israelis, the local population, and community volunteers who believed in the strength of the community came together to form the organization. The organization’s top objective is building and fostering local leadership that will continue to serve the community’s interests.

What Led to The Establishment of Little Light?

In Namuwongo, nearly ten thousand individuals endure abject poverty. Most of them are refugees or migrants from Northern Uganda, Rwanda, the Congo, and Kenya who have fled violent wars. Most people who live in Namuwongo are jobless, and even those who manage to find work make an average income below the poverty line internationally. Most have little or no access to reliable sources of income, healthcare, or education.

Due to poverty and deteriorating conditions, many individuals are afflicted with infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and others that have a high death rate or suffer from depression, malnutrition, and hunger.

More than 70% of Namuwongo people are children and young people. Orphans make up half of them. Children are frequently allowed to wander unattended among the trash and open sewage since most households cannot send them to school, exposing them to various environmental hazards. The bulk of these kids needs more protection and opportunity for growth.

After observing these struggles and the challenging everyday life in the area, a group of local and foreign volunteers founded Little Light, a nursery school and community center for the neighborhood’s kids and their families. Kids in the nursery and early primary sections from the most impoverished families in the area are given free education at the school. They are also offered extracurricular activities, medical services, and free nutritious meals in a supportive environment.

How Little Light Is Supporting the People in Uganda

The organization Little Light Uganda comprises two groups: a youth group and a women’s group.

Spoon Youth

The group targeted towards the youth, the Spoon Youth organization, was founded to provide the youth of Namuwongo with a dependable and secure environment where they can learn and grow.

Children are also taught by the organization how to survive in poverty, including addressing issues like criminal activity and violence. More than 70 percent of Namuwongo’s population comprises children and youth, and since half of them are orphans, Little Light works to give them shelter and resources.

Umoja

Little Light’s women’s empowerment organization, named “Umoja,” which translates to “Unity,” invites the mothers of kids in the youth group.

Giving women residing in the Namuwongo slum the skills they need to improve their financial and social circumstances is the group’s purpose. Every day at the organization, the women’s group gathers to create traditional African jewelry out of hand-rolled beads and recycled newspapers. To give women a source of income and a way of life, jewelry is sold both in Uganda and overseas.

Mama Pendo

The group has given the jewelry line the moniker Mama Pendo, which translates to “The Mother of Love.” The program aims to enhance the lives of single moms and refugees attempting to provide their children with an education.

Volunteers from Little Light Uganda have collaborated with the women to support their arduous work and develop a website for selling handmade jewelry. The earnings from jewelry sales support the women’s passion projects, all of which aim to improve the living circumstances of low-income women and other disadvantaged people.

Malaria Prevention

Malaria, one of Uganda’s leading causes of mortality, is the focus of one of the organization’s efforts. In Uganda, the disease claims the lives of up to a hundred thousand children each year, as reported by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. The organization buys an organic mosquito-repellent soap with proceeds from bracelet sales, which is then distributed to underprivileged families who reside in malaria-prone areas.

COVID-19 Prevention

Additionally, the women have started a campaign to fight COVID-19. Since maintaining good hygiene is crucial for halting the spread of the illness, the organization has promised that for each website purchase, it would donate one bar of soap to an underprivileged household in Namuwango.

Little Light Uganda actively supports its community through programs like the Mama Pendo project. Along with assisting individuals in need, the group also empowers young people and women who live in poverty to take measures to improve their own lives and the Ugandan economy as a whole.

Little Light Uganda can be reached at the following:

References

https://www.developmentaid.org/organizations/view/304389/little-light-children-center/general

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4426580/

Image Reference

Image Link: https://littlelightchildren.com/womens-group-page/