Hand Back Health Golf Day – Charity Feature – Article by Dr. Sarah Worthington
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Welcome To The Eye Magazine Directory
Hand Back Health Golf Day – Charity Feature – Article by Dr. Sarah Worthington
50 spirited golfers gathered under clouds at Entebbe Golf Club for a day of camaraderie, competition and compassion. The annual Hand Back Health Golf Day, hosted at Entebbe club for the first time, proved to be much more than a sporting event—it was a powerful testament to community and the drive to make a difference.
Founded in 2017, Hand Back Health is a local, self-funding NGO dedicated to improving community wellness through Chiropractic, Physiotherapy, and holistic outreach services. Over the years, they’ve treated thousands, often stepping in where other services fall short.
This year’s event was organized to raise funds to initiate a new project; Vocational Training of Blind Women and Girls in Therapeutic Massage. The project will focus on young adult women with visual impairment due to the inherent difficulties for this portion of the population to gain employment. A person with a disability is almost twice as likely to be unemployed and women are at an even greater disadvantage. This project aims to increase employment opportunities for visually impaired women by providing vocational training in a skill that is applicable to their disability, provides a multitude of employment and self-employed possibilities whilst also providing a community wellness service need.
Hand Back Health is a self-funding organization. As such, projects such as these can only be instigated through the type of fundraising activity as occurred on June 1 st at Entebbe Golf Club.
During the 7.30 am breakfast all eyes were on the cloudy skies. Rain delayed the start slightly, but spirits were high and golfers teed off by 9am in a shotgun format. Players of all levels enjoyed a team format, better ball, scramble game of golf. This is truly a team game where players of any ability have a chance to play together. There was even a team of four players that were complete beginners at the game; Thank you to our ‘Russian Team’ that embodied the spirit of the day; fun for a cause.
Most teams had completed the beautiful course within 3.5hours except for the renegade South African team – who seemed to be having so much fun playing that they even played one hole twice in error! A highlight of the day was the playful "Pick-a-Card" challenge at the 10th hole. Golfers drew cards to determine the only club they could use for the hole—resulting in some wildly creative shots, like driving with a putter or swinging a left-handed club. The laughter was loud and the memories, lasting.
As the final putts dropped and the sun set on a memorable day, one thing was clear: in this community, giving back is always par for the course.
The 18 Hole Team challenge was followed by Lunch of sumptuous Spit roast pig prepared and cooked to perfection by Jaco from Nile River Explorers. The awards ceremony celebrated top team scores, best national team, and a host of light-hearted recognitions—ensuring no one went home empty-handed.
As the afternoon unfolded, all eyes turned to the 18th green for the now-iconic Bunker Shot, sponsored by JP Cuttings. With two chances to land closest to the pin from the sand, the challenge drew plenty of laughs and cheers.
Our ever-entertaining MC; Jim O’Sullivan kept players and spectators alike engaged and amused with his anecdotes throughout the afternoon. The prize, a cash pot of 1 million Ugandan shillings, was fittingly split between two brothers from the same team; Conrad Acaye and Ian Odokonyero of 2 Friends Hotel, sharing not just family ties but impressive bunker skills.
We would like to take this opportunity to share a few words about our sponsors and thank them;
Future Generations Trust: Future Generation Trust (FGT), is a development-focused trust, motivated by Wild Frontiers Uganda (WFU), they believe in low impact tourism in order to conserve Uganda’s wildlife and heritage for future generations to appreciate and enjoy. With a vision for ‘Environmentally conscious and prospering communities co-existing alongside thriving populations of wildlife.’ In alignment with their mission to support a sustainable, environmentally conscious community development and wildlife conservation, the Future Generations Trust (FGT) continues to make a meaningful difference in some of Uganda’s most underserved communities. Project activities operate in collaboration with like- minded organizations and partners, Hence the engagement and support to the Hand Back Health charity event and vocational training project for blind ladies was in line with our strategic priority as Future Generations Trust, a trust focused on Education, Conservation and Community.
JP Cuttings: The best cutting production site in Uganda. Where they produce cuttings with care for people, nature and the future. Their support this year was invaluable.
We would also like to thank the following companies for their donations and donations in kind:
Nile Breweries. This marks the fourth year Nile Breweries and Castle Lite have generously aided his event. Their merchandise is always well received by our winners and their unending support is truly appreciated.
Your Choice. For the multitude of meat products donated. Our players will be enjoying Your Choice produce for a month of Sundays.
Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort and Spa generously provide our winners with the finest golf experience in Uganda.
Smart Security Provides tailor made technological security systems. They continue to offer support annually to our fundraising activities.
The event could obviously not happen without the involvement of players. A huge thank you for taking part and we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did.
Entebbe Golf Club were fabulous hosts and all the management, staff and caddies did a wonderful job. We hope we can hold our event at their beautiful course again in the future.
Plans are already in motion for next year’s event, with hopes of expanding the competition and involving even more community partners.
For those who couldn’t attend but still wish to contribute, donations to the project can be made to Hand Back Health. Please contact Dr Sarah Worthington for more information.
We will need to raise further funds to enable the project to go ahead. We are looking for sponsors, groups and businesses to provide scholarships for individuals to take part in our program. Sponsors would be provided with all details on the individual sponsored as well as updates on their progress through-out and on completion of the course.
This sponsorship would provide you with a real relationship with your sponsored individual and the knowledge that you have changed the life of a visually impaired girl that would otherwise have little opportunity of a self-sustaining lifestyle.
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