Giving Stories Blog

In the misty hills of Buweri, Sironko, Uganda’s women judicial officers under the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) Uganda Chapter walked into Bukwanga Primary School with a simple, urgent mission: protect vulnerable girls and keep them learning. They listened to painful testimonies, girls pressured into early marriage, silenced by stigma around menstruation, and pushed to the edge of dropping out, then responded with practical giving that restores dignity: exercise books, snacks, and reusable sanitary towels, alongside a longer promise of bursaries and sustained support. With a school of 706 pupils (406 girls) facing major staffing shortages, this visit showed what meaningful giving looks like: not charity as pity, but justice in action, helping girls stay safe, stay in school, and grow into the leaders they are meant to be.

Read More in the paper print of NEW VISION newspaper | Wednesday 5, 2025 | Story By Moses Nampala

The 2025 Gulu City Marathon turned sport into a giving engine, drawing nearly 1,500 participants at Kaunda Grounds, where Allan Andiema defended his title (2:17:16) and winners across categories were celebrated, but the bigger win was what the race makes possible for the community. Beyond the medals, the marathon channels support into Northern Uganda’s wellbeing and future: partners hosted add-ons like a medical camp, and the marathon’s charity impact includes a UGX 10,000,000 donation to the Dero Kwan Initiative (a scholarship effort supporting vulnerable children in Acholi). In other words, every registration, sponsorship, and cheer can translate into school fees, healthier families, and pride in culture that keeps communities standing.

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Kasese’s inaugural Omusinga Birthday Run became a rallying point for giving that protects both people and heritage, a call for residents to act as peace ambassadors and to strengthen unity after recent security threats in the Rwenzori sub-region.  Beyond the race, the moment spotlighted community-led giving toward the Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu’s renewal agenda, including plans for a one-stop cultural village and a kingdom radio station to preserve and promote identity. In this story, giving is not only money, but also choosing peace, supporting cultural institutions that create livelihoods (tourism, enterprise, education), and standing behind projects that help a community rebuild with dignity.

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Tracy Ahumuza turned personal grief into public good after losing her newborn daughter, Alyssa, in a crisis where timely colostrum and lactation support could have changed everything. That loss sparked the ATTA Breastmilk Community (founded in 2021), a nonprofit built on safe milk sharing, screening donors, preserving milk properly, and getting lifesaving donor breastmilk to premature, low-birthweight, and medically fragile babies when their mothers cannot produce enough. As demand grew, ATTA evolved from simply connecting donors and recipients to building real systems: safe transport, education for health workers, advocacy for milk banking, and even acquiring a small pasteuriser through crowdfunding despite high costs. To date, ATTA has collected and dispensed about 600 litres of donor milk to 400+ newborns, powered by donors, volunteers, and partners, proving that sometimes the smallest bags of “liquid gold” can carry the biggest hope.

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This holiday season, the Future Stars Residential Holiday Training Camp at Gayaza Junior School and Gayaza High School (7–17 December 2025) is more than a sports program, it is a chance to give young people structured opportunity when the holidays can easily become idle or risky. With training in football, basketball, netball, swimming, chess, scrabble, badminton, table tennis, and lawn tennis, plus life-shaping sessions in fitness and wellness, career guidance, mental health awareness, first aid & CPR, and safeguarding, the camp wraps talent in mentorship and protection. Giving here looks like sponsoring a participant, supporting equipment and coaching, or helping lower the UGX 400,000 barrier, so ability, not income, decides who gets to become “tomorrow’s champion.”

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In Kampala, Uganda, a growing network of breastmilk donors is quietly saving fragile newborn lives through the ATTA Breastmilk Community, an initiative founded in 2021 by Tracy Ahumuza after her own painful experience of needing milk support and finding none. Today, ATTA receives urgent calls from homes and hospitals for babies born too soon or too sick to breastfeed and has supported more than 450 babies with over 600 liters of donated milk from 200+ mothers since July 2021. Donors are screened and guided on safe handling, milk is stored and delivered (often by motorcycle courier), and lactation specialists work alongside mothers to help them build their own supply, freeing up milk for the next family in crisis, even as demand continues to outpace supply due to testing and storage costs and limited access to freezers.

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What began as a simple invitation to the 6th Grand Cookout at Butabika Hospital became a living portrait of African generosity in action. Led by Gerry (Geraldine) Opoka and the Soul Foundation, volunteers came together to cook and share a hearty meal with patients and staff at Butabika – an act of service that, beautifully, coincided with International Volunteer Day (5th December).

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Year after year, Mukwano Industries U Ltd. has quietly but powerfully stood alongside the Butabika Festival and this year, they fulfilled their pledged support once again. Their consistency goes beyond a single act of generosity; it reflects a deep, sustained commitment to mental health and community care.

Through their support, Mukwano has helped elevate mental health awareness and reminded both patients and staff at Butabika that they are seen, valued, and not alone. Their giving helps create an atmosphere of dignity, joy, and belonging at the Festival – something that cannot be captured by numbers alone.

Partnerships like this form the quiet backbone of the Festival’s impact. They allow programs to run, people to be reached, and hope to be renewed in places where it is most needed.

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During #PhilanthropyWeek2025, from powerful stories at the Annual Philanthropy Symposium to the joy and connection of the #GatheringOfGivers, generosity that truly stays, serves, and sustains was celebrated. Pillar Mbabazi honored everyday heroes—especially the silent givers whose kindness keeps communities alive—and changemakers who remind us that giving is not just about money, but about time, love, and presence. The key lesson: giving is a way of life, everyone has something to offer, and true philanthropy is local, rooted in community, and carried in the hearts of those who choose to show up. Cheers to CivSource Africa, CivLegacy Foundation, and Uganda National NGO Forum for creating an unforgettable event that brought together givers, dreamers, and changemakers, creating a wave of generosity that will keep flowing. #OurGenerousSpirit

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The clean-up at Mpanga market has begun, with MTN leadership, city leaders, and traders rolling up their sleeves side by side. No titles, no hierarchy, just people united by MTN’s spirit of collaboration, community, and care, and a shared commitment to restoring a cleaner, safer, more dignified space for everyone who works and shops there. This is what true community partnership looks like in action, and a powerful reminder that when we show up together, we can transform the places we call home. For more stories and updates on how this clean-up unfolds, follow MTN and partner pages on social media and walk the journey with us.

Last week, Masaka School for the Deaf received a heartwarming boost as a team from Stanbic Bank Uganda visited the school in celebration of International Children’s Day, donating desktop computers, laptops, a printer, hygiene supplies, and scholastic materials to strengthen both learning and daily life for Deaf learners. This support will significantly enhance the school’s ICT capacity, connect learners more meaningfully to the digital world, and promote their overall wellbeing, adding real value to the school’s mission of providing inclusive, empowering education for Deaf children. We are deeply grateful to Stanbic Bank Uganda for choosing to stand with Masaka School for the Deaf and for their continued commitment to transforming lives.

Read more about this partnership and its impact on the learners…

October marked Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month, and at Cerebral Stars Daycare Center it came with a beautiful act of generosity. The Old Girls of Gayaza Junior School (1998–2004) visited our little Stars with gifts of love , including specialised equipment like wheelchairs and other essentials that are already transforming children’s comfort, mobility, and daily experience. The visit was more than charity; it was a moment of connection, awareness, and inclusion, where parents, children, and visitors shared smiles, tears, and deep gratitude.

Read more about this visit and how you can support Cerebral Stars Daycare Center HERE.

Soul Foundation received and delivered a consignment of men’s clothing from Miriam and the KidsSPITEX – Hospital At Home to the Butabika National Referral Hospital, earmarked for male patients being discharged. The donation is intended to restore dignity and ease reintegration as beneficiaries begin new chapters at home. Foundation leads note that the need remains high; additional contributions of clean men’s clothing and other essentials are requested to support upcoming discharges.

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#SoulFoundation #MentalHealthAwareness #GivingWithHeart

Weekend Vision spotlights Watoto’s Neighbourhood programme, which combines adult literacy, discipleship, business training, and starter capital to help vulnerable and single mothers move from survival to sustainable income, impact that has already reached more than 7,500 mothers and is growing through drives like the 2025 Watoto Golf Tournament targeting UGX 350m to equip 1,000 more with business starter kits. This is practical, community-powered giving that turns compassion into livelihoods and long-term family stability.

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hday joy into access: after helping establish a Resource Centre, supporters rallied on 27 September to fund a mobile library, books, computers, and learning aids on wheels, for schools kept away by distance. Led by Esther Kalenzi and powered by 4040’s volunteers, the night raised UGX 17,326,575 in cash and UGX 10,450,000 in pledges, pushing the project from vision to rollout. The invitation stands: keep the wheels turning with donations and partnerships so more learners meet the mountain.

Marking 25 years of keeping girls in school, this effort shows how community-powered giving moves the needle: Fraine Supermarket Ntinda has long hosted a donation box that channels customer micro-gifts into sanitary pads for the Education Support Program, and now their new Kira branch has added a second box, widening the circle of care. The result speaks for itself: retention among supported girls has climbed steadily, reaching 98% in 2023. It’s a simple, scalable blueprint for businesses and nonprofits to co-create lasting educational change and an open invitation for more partners to join.

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Every September, the Ugandan Children Cancer Foundation honors milestones in the fight against childhood cancer, proof that small acts create big light. Over the weekend of the 13th, alongside the Rotary Club of Kampala City, we joined a ward visit where listening ears, warm smiles, and simple gifts reminded us that time and presence are powerful forms of giving. As Aesop said, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted,” and the laughter of these little warriors made that truth ring loud.

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DFCU Bank has pledged UGX 1 billion over three years to Rotary-led health initiatives, launching Uganda’s first corporate Rotary club, Rotary Club of Kampala Blue Hearts, to turn everyday professionals into purposeful givers tackling real barriers like high costs, drug stock-outs, scarce expertise, and long journeys to care. This is giving with a backbone: multi-year, community-anchored, and designed to inspire more corporates to step in, co-fund, and strengthen Uganda’s health ecosystem, proof that when businesses give with intention, communities gain durable access and dignity.

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When you give to women on the margins, you don’t just cover a need, you restore identity, agency, and hope. Through the Watoto Neighbourhood Programme, giving shows up as literacy classes, vocational training, mentorship, healthcare, and spiritual support, practical gifts that turn despair into possibility. Mothers once weighed down by poverty, abandonment, or HIV are now tailors, bakers, salon owners, and community mentors. That is what dignified giving looks like: not charity that ends at relief, but investment that begins a new life.

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Ubuntu reminds us that giving is not optional, it is who we are. “I am because we are” means that every act of generosity strengthens the collective. From bulungi bwansi (community clean-ups) to village savings groups, Ugandans have long embodied this spirit. Giving is what sustains communities, resolves conflicts, and carries us through hardship.

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