By Emma Mogaka, Training Manager

From 8th to 11th August, my colleagues Kate Kiama (Director of Programs and Impact), Florence Sidi (Program Assistant), and I had the pleasure of conducting a site visit to Arlington Academy of Hope - a long-term She's the First partner in Bududa, Uganda. This was my first week at STF! What better way to get on-boarded than spend time with one of the partners! One way of summing up the visit is transformational!

Arlington Academy of Hope (AAH) is a non-governmental organization, started in 2004, based in Eastern Uganda and operating in Bududa, Manafwa, and Namisindwa Districts. Bududa has a beautiful, hilly terrain! It is very green, and the land is productive. There are lots of green bananas everywhere! AAH’s mission is “Transforming lives in rural Uganda through quality education, health care, and community development.

The Arlington Junior School currently has approximately 500 students with an almost 50-50 balance between girls and boys. The school has supported more than 970 students, with more than 270 graduated since its inception in 2004. The school also has an outreach program to 26 Government schools in its areas of operation. Arlington Academy of Hope has two health facilities that serve approximately 30,000 patients annually.

We received a very warm welcome at the school. The students had prepared several songs and a cultural dance. The founders, John and Joyce Wanda, were present, too. It was lovely to see how they interacted with the students. The connection is very inspirational! The teachers and volunteers are very relatable as well.

We administered the Organizational Mapping Tool (OMT) to 49 staff members from various departments. The OMT was created to assist organizations in reflecting and building on their strong points and also identify areas for institutional strengthening. The best approach for this process is for individual team members to fill out the form separately and then converge as a team for organization-wide discussions. The strength of the tool is it looks at all aspects of the organization with different scoring levels. Team members assess what works well and what could be improved. They then collectively identify priority areas and develop an action plan for addressing them.

What struck me most during the AAH OMT process is the passion and connection the team has. They have bought into the organization’s vision and mission. The impact of their work demonstrates this. It was amazing to learn that 15 of the staff members were alumni of the AAH Program! 

We had training sessions with the teachers and mentors on unconscious bias, feminist mentorship, and conducting focus groups with girls. We ran a session called “Building Assets for Girls” about structuring girls’ programs based on what resources girls need, what knowledge they need to be trained in, and the best methodology for those trainings.

We also played our “What Would You Do?” game with mentors and the girls. The goal of the game is to create a platform for girls to engage in conversations to enable them to safely explore the building blocks of healthy relationships and develop strategies for setting boundaries.

On day two, we had a session on menstrual health and hygiene with about 200 girls from Arlington Junior School and 10 schools in their outreach program. The session covered the reproductive health system and menstruation. We practically demonstrated how to use different types of menstrual hygiene products. A key highlight was the number of questions the girls and the mentors asked on the topic. This caused us to extend the Q&A session to ensure we adequately responded to all questions. In the end, each girl received a physical copy of My Period Diary, and they all learned how to use it to track their menses.

We were honored to visit the site where AAH is constructing a state-of-the-art high school in Bududa. The plans are very elaborate, and there’s no doubt that the school will transform the community and, more so, its students! What struck us is that some of the technical persons in leadership positions at the site are alumni of AAH! The vision is not only carried by the founders but the team and the community as well. 

My key takeaway is legacy and the power of vision! AAH founders will be remembered for generations to come for their investment in their community—love, financial commitment, and time investment. This commitment has led to transformation, the creation of networks in and out of Uganda, community buy-in and support, and increased voice and agency of girls in the region. I am so glad that STF partners with AAH to impact the lives of girls in the Bududa, Manafwa, and Namisindwa Districts. We are excited to continue partnering with AAH to ensure girls in Eastern Uganda are educated, respected, and heard!