FROM UGANDA TO NORWAY
It started as a dream when I was still young, thinking about the European countries. This was due to the fact that I learnt about how these European countries do conduct their work, and I was pleased because many different sources tells us how organised the white countries are. Never the less I continued and completed my high school studies in 2013.
In 2014 during my vacation in the village came up an organisation called CBS PEWOSA (Project to Empower Women through Savings and Loan Association) under STROMME MICRO FINANCE. This project was training community members how to save and use the acquired loans from their cmmf (community managed micro-finance) groups. and even it has other sections ie
Vocational training
Food security training etc.
I participated in these training for three months from where we formed a group of 30 members called Akateyaniira cmmf and we started saving and getting loans from our group as we invest them in income generating activities. During saving our trainer Mr. Galiwango Christopher used to come and monitor us to see that what we were taught during training are the one we a practicing during saving.
To cut story short our trainer used to ask me logical questions about community development and how to handle mainly all categories of people from young people, youth and the elders, really i also used logical thinking in answering these questions but not knowing that he is asking me for reason. Later i received the information from our current trainer by then in 2015 Mr. Ssenyondo Joseph that the project manager of cbs pewosa wants to meet me, really i was shocked because it wasn't in my mind that one day i will be called upon by such a great person. I prepared my self on Wednesday morning to go and meet the project manager of cbs pewosa. On reaching in the office I was firstly pleased by the fact that my fellow two trainers were around, it was there project meeting day so i had to wait until the end of the meeting in order to meet the manager, fortunately the time reached for meeting the manager, during the meeting we talked about many things about pewosa, cbs and even i told her about my life. but all was going on but for me i was waiting for the conclusion and finally she told me that you are going to be volunteering with cbs pewosa in Nangabo sub county really i was very happy.
But before starting to do any work I was orientated more about cmmf methodology, cross cutting issues, and many other things.
I started volunteering with cbs pewosa in Nangabo sub-county doing the following;
Training community members in cmmf methodology
Training members in food security
Recruiting youths on vocational skilling training
Mobilizing members to participate in cbs pewosa trade fair. and in cbs radio activities.
Fortunately stromme came up with a student program exchange in this year which is called act now and it gave a chance to its partner to get one volunteer to participate in these program and from cbs pewosa organisation I was chosen to represent them in this program. so what started as a dream became true because I had to travel to Norway to acquire different skills in community development.
Now what is Act now program?
Act now program is the youth exchange program organised by Stromme foundation and Norec aimed on empowering youth in different skills like, cultural understanding, how they can fight against poverty, corruption, advocate for their right and many others. Stromme foundation has managed to do this by connecting youths from different parts of the world to Hald international center where they get teaching both in the fall and in the spring - in addition to 6 months of infield practices in a new culture.
How Stromme foundation, Norec and Hald Internasjonale Senter related? Norec is facilitating and giving economical support to the exchange programs at Hald International Senter. Norec is an organisation under he department of foreign affairs in Norway. Hald International Senter is owned by Stromme Foundation, Laget and NMS. These three organisations have one exchange program each at the school; Act Now (Stromme foundation) Connect (NMS) and InterAct (Laget): Hald International Senter also receive economical support from Norwegian government to run the school. In addition to run the three exchange programs, Hald International Senter is also a vocational school. Being a student/participant at Hald International Senter will give me a diploma in intercultural communication and international work.
It started as a dream when I was still young, thinking about the European countries. This was due to the fact that I learnt about how these European countries do conduct their work, and I was pleased because many different sources tells us how organised the white countries are. Never the less I continued and completed my high school studies in 2013.
In 2014 during my vacation in the village came up an organisation called CBS PEWOSA (Project to Empower Women through Savings and Loan Association) under STROMME MICRO FINANCE. This project was training community members how to save and use the acquired loans from their cmmf (community managed micro-finance) groups. and even it has other sections ie
Vocational training
Food security training etc.
I participated in these training for three months from where we formed a group of 30 members called Akateyaniira cmmf and we started saving and getting loans from our group as we invest them in income generating activities. During saving our trainer Mr. Galiwango Christopher used to come and monitor us to see that what we were taught during training are the one we a practicing during saving.
To cut story short our trainer used to ask me logical questions about community development and how to handle mainly all categories of people from young people, youth and the elders, really i also used logical thinking in answering these questions but not knowing that he is asking me for reason. Later i received the information from our current trainer by then in 2015 Mr. Ssenyondo Joseph that the project manager of cbs pewosa wants to meet me, really i was shocked because it wasn't in my mind that one day i will be called upon by such a great person. I prepared my self on Wednesday morning to go and meet the project manager of cbs pewosa. On reaching in the office I was firstly pleased by the fact that my fellow two trainers were around, it was there project meeting day so i had to wait until the end of the meeting in order to meet the manager, fortunately the time reached for meeting the manager, during the meeting we talked about many things about pewosa, cbs and even i told her about my life. but all was going on but for me i was waiting for the conclusion and finally she told me that you are going to be volunteering with cbs pewosa in Nangabo sub county really i was very happy.
But before starting to do any work I was orientated more about cmmf methodology, cross cutting issues, and many other things.
I started volunteering with cbs pewosa in Nangabo sub-county doing the following;
Training community members in cmmf methodology
Training members in food security
Recruiting youths on vocational skilling training
Mobilizing members to participate in cbs pewosa trade fair. and in cbs radio activities.
Fortunately stromme came up with a student program exchange in this year which is called act now and it gave a chance to its partner to get one volunteer to participate in these program and from cbs pewosa organisation I was chosen to represent them in this program. so what started as a dream became true because I had to travel to Norway to acquire different skills in community development.
Now what is Act now program?
Act now program is the youth exchange program organised by Stromme foundation and Norec aimed on empowering youth in different skills like, cultural understanding, how they can fight against poverty, corruption, advocate for their right and many others. Stromme foundation has managed to do this by connecting youths from different parts of the world to Hald international center where they get teaching both in the fall and in the spring - in addition to 6 months of infield practices in a new culture.
How Stromme foundation, Norec and Hald Internasjonale Senter related? Norec is facilitating and giving economical support to the exchange programs at Hald International Senter. Norec is an organisation under he department of foreign affairs in Norway. Hald International Senter is owned by Stromme Foundation, Laget and NMS. These three organisations have one exchange program each at the school; Act Now (Stromme foundation) Connect (NMS) and InterAct (Laget): Hald International Senter also receive economical support from Norwegian government to run the school. In addition to run the three exchange programs, Hald International Senter is also a vocational school. Being a student/participant at Hald International Senter will give me a diploma in intercultural communication and international work.
Fig 1  |
| The Act now program is not only taking place in East Africa but it also take place in other countries like Nepal, and even in some parts Norway. fig 1 is showing all of the participant who are on Act now program year 2018-2019 |
 fig 2 |
| We were two participants from Uganda and Four participants from Tanzania who participated in these program and we a looking forward to see that we bring back new experiences which will help us to fight against poverty in our communities. Fig 2 is showing the six participants together with the regional director of stromme foundation of East Africa |
Thank you Erisha. Aim higher.
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Deletethanks