In early April representatives from our local partners in Budaka found themselves back in the classroom, attending a course on organisational and program management for community-based organisations. This intensive course, chosen by our partners, was designed to strengthen their capacity and organisational structures and covered topics including networking, forming partnerships and management roles and responsibilities. The second part of the course covered all aspects of program management, starting with proposal design and developing a baseline study, onto implementation and monitoring and evaluation approaches and techniques. Our partners have reported that they really enjoyed the training and learnt new skills and insights.
Our partners have also now finished purchasing materials that will help shore up their sustainability and capacity to generate an income. For most of our partners, this has involved purchasing equipment which can be rented out to community members to bring in revenue. Iki-Iki, NACOMAS and Gaalimagi all purchased tents and chairs and will make these available for hire for events in their communities. Kakule took a different path and used funds to purchase six sewing machines and two bicycles, again with the intention of making these available for rent and community training.
As we enter into the final months of our partnership with Budaka and transition from more formal arrangements, we are looking forward to keeping in contact and seeing how our partners develop and continue to serve their communities. It has been a privilege to work together over the past 10 years and we are confident our Budaka partners will continue to thrive and find new ways to serve their communities.
We would like to acknowledge the tremendous service, professionalism and integrity of our Liaison Officer, Joy Katooko. In a letter to indigo and our supporters, Joy writes “I would like to commend indigo foundation for its commitment to supporting the Budaka project in Uganda. Kudos to the management, staff and its volunteers who have made this happen, although 2019/2020 has been one of the toughest years globally due to the prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic. This ten year journey has been very interesting and we have learnt a lot in the partnership” The full letter from Joy is in our 2020 Annual Report on our website.
Joy has shown great dedication and commitment to both indigo foundation and our partners over the past decade and has been instrumental in keeping momentum going, even during the hardest of times. We are so grateful to Joy and wish her and her family all the best for the future.
