The Spotlight on Africa Uganda Foundation is an International Non Governmental agency that coordinates official development assistance for Harpenden Spotlight on Africa UK - her sister organisation. It is registered with the government of Uganda to bring meaningful life to her communities and grow them to maturity in Mbale, Bukedea and Budaka districts.

Our vision, mission and actions

Vision
The vision of SoA-UF is to provide financial and practical help to communities, organizations and individuals in Uganda that will enable them to positively sustain their development initiatives. 

Mission
To act as a platform on which community members and other organisations can collectively achieve a common goal through information exchange, networking and partnership development in order to deliver high quality positive impacting projects.

Actions
1. Commitment: Commit ourselves with humility and passion to achieving our mission and vision.
2. Strategy: Think and act strategically with broad and long-term perspectives; inform, educate, encourage and train.
3. Innovation: Innovate to bring about extraordinary impacts.
4. Co-creation: Bring together diverse understanding, insights and resources.
5. Team Spirit: Soar into the field, think collectively and work together.
6. Belief: Helping people realize their development issues and addressing them in a participatory manner.
7. Recognising: the challenges at hand and the individual members’ challenges
8. Values: Every Ugandan has the God given right to live a life of love, freedom, abundance, and maximum potential. 
 

our work

Priority Areas

• Empowering Vulnerable Populations in the communities
• Encouraging Social Entrepreneurship
• Developing  small scale businesses/crafts and village saving schemes
• Developing community Health Preventive and Curative medicine and referral systems
• Fostering non traditional partnerships
• Expanding Harpenden’s support to the communities in Eastern Uganda
• Developing Small scale water Solutions
• Promoting Culture and the Arts
• Improving Disaster Preparedness, through disease surveillance
• Decreasing girl child trafficking and sexual exploitation in the communities

Collaboration

• Harpenden Spotlight on Africa UK. (sister organization)
• Mbale Regional Referral Hospital- Research Unit.
• Ministry of Education and Sports through Mbale District Education Office.
• Ministry Of Health through Mbale District Health Office.
• Ministry Gender Labour and Social Development through Mbale District Community Development Office.
• Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries through Bukedea Fisheries Office.
• Ministry of Water and Environment through Mbale District Water office.
• Mbale District Local Government.
• Bukasakya Sub-County Local Government.
• Eastern Private Sector Development Centre.
• Mbale Elders Fellowship.
• Rotary Club of Mbale.
• Uganda Health Marketing Group.
• JENGA CDO
• Malaria Consortium
• Green Pastures Academy
• Nashisha Primary School

A message from the executive director

MARCH 2018

In life, sometimes the experiences that matter the most are the briefest. They pass in the blink of an eye: a few days, a few hours, a few moments. They are the experiences that illuminate the landscape of our memory, shining brightly even years later. They are the moments in which we see, suddenly, something we had not seen; we understand something we had not understood; we forge a connection we had not expected.

For me, this has been a Spotlight on Africa year like no other. I have been around the communities, traversing villages and households. I have been to Communities I had never seen before, and I have returned to familiar places and seen them, as if it was for the first time, through the lens of Spotlight on Africa.

When you serve for Spotlight, you serve with a different sense of perspective and a different sense of purpose. There is an awareness of being part of something larger than yourself. When you board a bodaboad  or leave your home in the hot hours of early afternoon, you may be leaving for communities unknown – but at your destination, there will be no strangers. There will be Spotlight Community Health Promoters, waiting and welcoming. There will be work to do, something to learn, and something to teach.

There will be connections to forge, friendships to build, and memories to carry for a lifetime.

This year, I have been the ‘field officer’, and I have been welcomed by Community Health Promoters around the Sub-county. A few months from now, from June to August, I invite you to step into my experience: allow me to welcome you to Spotlight on Africa Family.

For a brief moment in time, you will experience Spotlight on Africa as I have experienced it: in all its diversity, all its warmth, and all its potential. You will be greeted as an old friend by people you have never met; you will share your thoughts, even without a shared language. You will learn with wonder of what Spotlight has achieved, and leave inspired to achieve even more.

Before this calendar year comes to its close, I ask you to do what I have done: to leave your homes, to board your ‘horses’, to travel toward the unknown with an open heart and an open mind, confident that Spotlight on Africa will welcome you. Join me, and your fellow Harpenden Spotlight, as we Connect with Musoto! – Touch the World.

Thank you for being part of this Vision,

Shalom,
Richard F Okotel
Executive Director

OUR TEAM

Spotlight On africa - Uganda Foundation BOARD

Mzee Mungoma Mwalye Pius - Chair of Spotlight on Africa Uganda Foundation
Retired Professor (Curriculum Development). Ugandan
Previously an active development participant of Musoto Christian School (since 2008), Pius Mwalye has been HSoA’s independent financial monitor in Uganda since 2006 and was appointed a Director of SOA Uganda Foundation in 2014. Mr Mwalye was formerly a senior lecturer and Dean of Studies in the Social Sciences Department Makerere University in Kampala. He has for many years been engaged in a similar monitoring role as a Trustee for the Windle Trust, a well known organisation within the UK and Uganda. 

Andrew Mayo - Chair of Harpenden Spotlight on Africa & Spotlight on Africa, Representative to Uganda Foundation and UF Board of Directors
Retired Professor (Curriculum Development). UK Resident
Andrew Mayo has been a Trustee of HSoA since 2010, and was until recently also a Trustee of Open Arms International (UK), which works with homeless and orphan children in Eldoret, Kenya. He is currently the Uganda Foundation Director and Harpenden Spotlight on Africa, and Representative on the Uganda Foundation Board. 

Okotel Richard Festo – Executive Director of Spotlight on Africa Uganda Foundation
Ugandan
Reporting directly the Trustees, Richard leads the team in Uganda, with overall responsibility for project planning and implementation. He has over 25 years experience of working on development projects in Uganda and has worked with a number of international charities. He has extensive experience in resettling internally displaced communities, and in mobilising communities to maintain development initiatives in projects involving education, health, clean water and income generation. 

Lornah Wamono – Secretary of Spotlight on Africa Uganda Foundation
Social Worker (Uganda Women Concern Ministry). Ugandan
Joined April, 2014

Dr. Edith Fomum – Member of Spotlight on Africa Uganda Foundation
Missionary from Cameroon (Medical Doctor). Cameroonian
Joined August, 2016

Malomo Michael – Member of Spotlight on Africa Uganda Foundation
Accountant (CPA-U) Mbale Municipality. Ugandan
Joined September, 2016

Akwii Helen Grace – Member of Spotlight on Africa Uganda Foundation
Consultant (Projects). Ugandan
Joined September, 2016

Ayo Julius Peter – Member of Spotlight on Africa Uganda Foundation
Agriculturalist (Mbale District Local Government). Ugandan
Joined September, 2016