In 2005, Milla Happonen decided to start a campaign to help feed some of the poorest families living around her in Kampala. The campaign was called, ‘You give them something to eat’. Planning for the campaign began in the summer and with the help of friends, students of the Kampala School of Theology, World Food Programme, Uganda Telecom, Gideon’s International plus local and International donations we achieved something astounding. We were able to provide 120 families, over 600 people, with food for Christmas.

 

The people we decided to concentrate on were the neediest in the community: the poor, widows, the elderly, disabled people, orphans and vulnerable people, the homeless, people living with HIV and households headed by grandparents or children.

 

The goal was to give these families a decent meal over the Christmas period but with the generous donations the families were supplied with enough food to last them a full month. They were given maize flour, CSB, beans, rice, cooking oil, tea, sugar, biscuits, salt and even soap. Although this was a great achievement it was quickly realised that this was only a short-term solution to a much bigger problem.

 

From this one campaign, Caring Hands was created. Our aim was and still is to break the cycle of poverty and we hope do that by mainly empowering women: widows, single mothers and women from difficult circumstances - many suffering from HIV or other health concerns. To empower them we trained more than 50 women in bead-making. Once they were trained we would buy and sell their beads to create beautiful recycled paper jewellery. We were able to provide these women with a way of earning a living and enabling them to better their circumstances.

 

Almost 10 years on and we continue to support the local communities. We have expanded our training to include Functional Adult Literacy classes, Business classes, and Life Skill courses. This allows people to learn new skills so they can continue to earn a living and support their families. We also work alongside the government and focus our efforts on health and the environment, engaging with youths to promote education, child rights, sports or recreation activities and peer support groups with a special emphasis on empowering girls.

 

Milla says, ‘The women who came to work for us were quite often outcast or abandoned. We wanted to care for them and create a feeling that everyone was welcome. You can’t change the whole world but it is enough to help a fellow human being who wants to do things for themselves.’