Image: IWO Executive Committee
Welcome To The Eye Magazine Directory
- All Locations :
Welcome To The Eye Magazine Directory
Image: IWO Executive Committee
The Uganda chapter of the worldwide International Women’s Organisation was started in its present form in 1983 and has been running ever since. IWO is a voluntary membership association of international women who come together for networking and to raise funds to support vulnerable women and children in Uganda.
We are registered under the umbrella organisation, National Association of Women’s Organisations in Uganda (NAWOU). IWO general meetings, usually with a speaker, and open to all, are held on the first Thursday of the month. Venues and themes are announced on our Facebook page (8) Facebook.
Our March general meeting took place at the premises of the women’s social enterprise 4 Africa near the Bahai Temple. Dorothy Adima, the Managing Director, told us her own personal story, and how 4 Africa enables vulnerable women in various parts of Kampala to obtain marketable skills in crochet and tailoring, as well as business skills. We also organise coffee mornings, outings and clubs for different interests – currently garden club, book club, scrabble club, and craft club.
Our Karibu outings explore interesting venues in and around Kampala. Recent outings have been to the Papercraft Uganda paper making and glass blowing in Bwebajja, the wonderful gardens at the Lugazi golf club and the Uganda Industrial Research Institute in Kampala.
We raise funds through our membership subscriptions, and we hold regular fundraising events (next up is a Thai new year fundraising lunch in Mbuya on Saturday April 13th). Later in the year there will be a Garden Bazaar and we are planning a Health Fair. All our meetings and events are advertised on our facebook page and in our members whatsapp group.
The Projects work is really at the heart of IWO in Uganda and has been our main aim and purpose. Over the years, many members have volunteered to be on the committee and have supported projects all over Uganda, to uplift the lives of vulnerable women and children and to help communities. We have a projects committee who run our project work. We receive applications from community groups, visit the projects for assessment, work with those we select to determine how IWO support can best benefit them, purchase the agreed items (we do not give cash), deliver and then follow up. It is very rewarding to see how our small input can make a big difference – be it a rainwater water tank for a school, improved pigs for a community group, scholastic materials or equipment for schools, a blood centrifuge for a health project, or most recently, leather stitching machines and other tools for Ttula a differently abled group in Kawempe on the outskirts of Kampala.
Another recently supported project is the Integrated WelfareAccess and Missionary Outpost Ministry in Bwenge, a village on the way to Kamuli beyond Jinja. This support for women and children took the form of agricultural inputs and scholastic materials.
If you’d be interested to know more about our what we do, please come along to our next general meeting which will be on Thursday April 4th. It will take place in Bukoto with a talk on Spinal Health, and with an Easter theme. Our AGM will be in May. We welcome new members – our current membership is made of nearly 20 different nationalities, and if you are newly arrived in Kampala, joining IWO is a great way to meet new people, learn (or teach) new hobbies, explore Kampala and its environs through our outings and see interesting parts of Kampala and the rest of the country by getting involved in our rewarding projects work.
