A Heart for the Women of Uganda - Project Outward
- Erynn Trewartha
- Sep 27, 2015
- 3 min read
"Woman by Woman, Village by Village, Nation by Nation” is the visionary statement that the five young women of Project Outward live by as they embark on their journey to help put women into business in poverty stricken nations around the world. In 2012, Team leader Elly Hunter embarked on a journey with her father to Uganda. Here she encountered poverty like she had never experienced previously, and felt nothing but a “broken heart” for the people she met. Ms. Hunter explained that many women were highly skilled, however did not have the financial resources to start up their own businesses. After witnessing the extreme poverty at first-hand, Ms. Hunter felt a stirring in her heart and became passionate about helping them. After returning to Australia and speaking to others about her desire to help, her friends Sheridan Norris, Lauren Parker and Laura Powell decided to step in and help support Elly in her mission. The fifth member of the project Laura Botterill joined late 2014. Together the girls had brainstormed ways to help the women of Uganda, and eventually decided that they would use ‘microfinance’ to empower the women, and release them from their poverty stricken state The five young women plus another six close friends and family members travelled to Uganda in June/July of 2015. As they embarked on this journey after so much hard work in planning, they travelled to a number of villages in the country. When the girls finally met the women they explained that it was a “mind-blowing experience.” Team member Lauren Parker explained that it was a “surreal” experience as they were “finally in a hut with these women” after so much time had been put into planning this very moment. Although the language barrier posed a problem, the communication between the girls of P.O and the women of Uganda was assisted by a missionary who already resides in Africa. During their meeting with the women in Uganda, they were given a variety of choices for their businesses and how they would go about setting them up. Although they already knew so much about what their own land provides, it was the finance, love and encouragement that the Project Outward team bestowed upon them, that would inspire them in their journey to make it work. None of the women took this experience for granted as the opportunity meant so much to them. They were extremely thankful that the girls came and spent time with them in person. Ms. Parker further explained that “They want to know how much they mean to you.” And by spending time with them it made them feel important to know that people do care about them in their hardship. It “restored hope” and helped them to feel “empowered.” During their time in Africa, the girls managed to put 50 women into business in the Ugandan Village of Bobi. The five young women also have intentions to travel to other countries around the world and even in parts of our own nation to continue helping others kick-start their lives and break-free from the harshness of poverty. If you want to know more about Project Outward and want to donate money to the cause, visit their website: http://www.projectoutward.com/ You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram https://www.facebook.com/projectoutward https://instagram.com/projectoutward/ https://twitter.com/projectoutward
Stay tuned for the artistic side of Project Outward run by Laura Powell and Sheridan Norris!
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