Our Annual Report over 2024
Kalama Your Friend Community Based Organisation (CBO) was founded in 2019 in Mityana Kalangalo. The organisation was established to unite members and encourage them to work together after realising the challenges faced in educating and supporting vulnerable children and youth. Our mission is to continue providing educational support, medical care, and shelter to vulnerable children while empowering women in the community.
Over the past year, Kalama Your Friend CBO has become more active and professional. Supported by our District Community Development Officer, Mr. Roger Sakayi, we have held several impactful meetings with vulnerable women in our community, facilitated by our Community Interaction Officer, Zia. The design and implementation of our programs have been highly effective, ensuring alignment with the community’s needs.
In order to be able to execute the projects we have defined within our development programs, project facilitators have been searched and asked to participate. This effort has led to a number of potential project facilitators. Within this group we have found some project facilitators, we can implement some of our projects with.
All programs and projects are executed following our 5 main principles:
This year we have started some projects, spread over some of our programs (infrastructure, health, education, agriculture/food security, business and weemanye): Potato project
Our Potato Project aims to utilise small spaces for food production. Despite challenges in finding suitable containers, the project has been successful, teaching women how to implement it effectively. This initiative has now expanded into a home-growing project, cultivating various vegetables around homesteads and imparting these skills to the community.
We are pleased to announce the successful acquisition of land to be used as a demonstration farm. This farm will serve as a site for cultivating food, experimenting with sustainable farming methods, and teaching these techniques to the local population. We are deeply grateful to our community for their support, particularly in making the monthly payments to Mr. Kalanzi; the previous owner.
Led by Nkatta Hamza, this project involves cultivating crops and teaching sustainable farming practices. We have started growing maize and beans on the acquired land, with children at our orphanage actively participating.
As part of our Weemanye program, led by Alan , this project engages youth through football, teaching teamwork and personal development skills.
Led by Raymond, this project empowers women by teaching tailoring skills, aiding their personal and economic development.
In our health campaign, we provided over 60 packages of reusable sanitary pads to girls and vulnerable women in our community. We celebrated Girl Day with the girls of Kalangalo RC Primary, offering guidance, counselling, and sharing the word of God.
During the last year we have started an online learning environment. Here, we distribute freely all material we have gathered that will enable people around the world, including our own group of children, to have access to all (primary and secondary) school material.
Led by our project facilitator; Ochan Lucky, this project educates the community on agricultural practices, enhancing food security and self-sufficiency. Ochan Lucky is set to meet with community members, before the end of this year, to discuss and implement the agro education project, focusing on sustainable farming practices.
We plan to meet with the water inspection officer to select the best location for drilling water, aiming to provide clean and accessible water for the community.
Throughout the year, our pen pal program has brought immense joy to the children, who cherish the letters sent to them on their birthdays. The program concludes with celebratory events, which the children thoroughly enjoy. We are thrilled to announce that six of our children have matched with pen pals from the USA, forging meaningful connections and receiving letters and gifts. Additionally, we successfully launched our pen pal website at www.mityanamiracles.nl.
We are proud to announce the signing of an MOU with Kalangalo RSC Primary School, enabling 15 of our children to join school. This milestone is a significant achievement in our educational support efforts.
Through our sponsorship program of $50 a month, we have observed notable improvements in the daily nutrition and overall well-being of our children, thanks to our generous donors.
Despite some dark hours, such as our chairman's accident, which left him hospitalised for a week with back complications, and our boy Kato's cancerous leg infection, the unwavering support from our donor community has been a beacon of hope. Thanks to their generosity, our chairman received necessary treatment and is back on his feet, Kato has fully recovered, and our boy Henry, who needed immediate surgery for his hand, is happy and healthy again. Additionally, our boy William, who was involved in a tree accident, requires immediate surgery due to a hemorrhagic effusion in his right hand. We are working diligently to ensure he receives the necessary treatment as soon as possible.
We were honoured to welcome a visitor, Henry Shawn Omolo from New York, to our orphanage. He brought gifts to the children, further brightening their lives.
We have reached and intensified contact with our Community Development Officer Mr. Roger Sakayi. This has helped us greatly in moving forward withj our organisation and the implementation of our programs.
Due to our efforts in the last year, we have grown as a community in strength ,in numbers and in a more structured way of working. Therefor we have been pushed and instructed to move from a Community Based Organisation (CBO) to a more official and worldwide recognised form: a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO). We are preparing to become an NGO, by setting up and describing our:
“In April 2023, my life underwent a profound transformation, courtesy of a divine encounter orchestrated by God. This led to my connection with Kalama Your Friend CBO, a connection that was clearly divinely ordained.
Through Facebook, Raymond reached out to me, and our messaging revealed he had twin grandchildren named Kato and Nabagulayne waiting for me. This news filled me with immense joy. We initiated the PenPal project, which expanded to include our three grandchildren, each having two pen pals. Conversations with Nkatta revealed that he and the others were orphans, to which I offered the title of mom and dad for them to use. The joy this simple offer brought to these adult men was beyond my imagination.
In November 2023, during a conversation with Nkatta, God bestowed upon me a vision for a new community center with the title of "In His Hands" complete with facilities capable of housing 100 children and several adults, alongside a church, fellowship hall, school, medical clinic, rehab center, large playground, and a swimming pool. By the end of 2024, God had miraculously opened numerous doors to start realizing this vision.
We have come to love them all as family, a depth of love for people I've never met that I never thought possible, all made possible through God."