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about us

When I was working as a doctor in a slum ambulance in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, in 2001/2002, I had the opportunity to get to know the neighboring country Uganda. It is on the Kenyan border in the east of the country. The middle town of Tororo with about 40,000 inhabitants is 15 km away from the border town of Malaba. From there the main road leads to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Truck transport is immense, as most goods, especially gasoline, arrive by land from Kenya to Uganda, but also to neighboring countries such as Rwanda, Congo and South Sudan.

When I went to Tororo, I noticed that there were high schools, but not in the rural area. So I asked myself what the school education looks like for the many girls and boys I got to know in the villages of the catchment area of Kidera, a suburb of Tororo.

This led to the fact that I designed the construction of a secondary school with my local partners. It was planned for young people from the rural poor who can only afford a comparatively low school fee. With the completion of the secondary school leaving certificate, the possibility of doing a job should improve.

After I returned to Saarbrücken in April 2002, I founded the association "Hilfe für Tororo / Uganda eV" with friends in May 2002

The “Masimiliano Ochwo Omiel Memorial Secondary School” was built with donations. It started teaching at the beginning of the school year 2004 and was fully recognized by the Ugandan government with all its powers in 2007, initially as a day school, and in recent years also as a boarding school. Girls are given special consideration in order to give them better opportunities to work.

Since I have been regularly in Uganda since the beginning of the projects and live for several months together with an extended family in one of the villages, I came to the conviction with the association members that parallel to the further development of this high school, an education center for women is also part of the Projects of the association "Help for Tororo / Uganda eV" should be.

It was a deep need of the women and girls to have a place where they can advise together on how they can improve their situation in life.

In the beginning, it was mainly a meeting place for women's groups with various activities such as a sewing shop, bakery as well as training courses for health education and self-help groups.

In the meantime, the “Masimiliano Ochwo Omiel Memorial Center” has developed further. A hairdressing salon and sewing shop were created with apprenticeships in these professions, which are especially popular for girls and women. There is also a grain mill, for example for grinding corn flour, and a bakery.

In 2020 we were able to open a shop in which an office service is offered for the rural population. This includes a computer with Internet access, a printer, photocopier and scanner, and a color copier and brochure binding device.

Often enough, the men have moved to the cities in search of a job. The necessary support for the backward family often comes only very irregularly or not at all.

To make matters worse, the climatic changes in recent years with the extremely heavy rainfalls with floods or excessively long dry seasons further worsened the living conditions of the villagers considerably. The income from agriculture and nutrition can therefore hardly be guaranteed in families. Animal husbandry, which is an important asset for people as a safeguard for times of need, also suffers from frequent diseases of the animals. The families hardly have the opportunity to provide for them adequately due to a lack of money.

Famine crises are unfortunately inevitable under these conditions. I've been experiencing this increasingly for many years. The corona pandemic has led to additional problems worldwide, but also in Uganda. For this purpose, I sent out several newsletters in 2020.

Finally, it should be mentioned that the association “Help for Tororo / Uganda eV” is regularly advised by the Partner Association “ToRuDeFo” (Tororo Rural Development Focus). The Chairman is Fr.Robert Omiel. With him and his team it is discussed together which projects should be applied for from the donors. This ensures that the cooperation corresponds all concerns of the local people.

Signed Dr. Christiane Maleika