Jolly participants; Dutch and Ugandans
On Tuesday October 19, 2010, I received a call from a Dutch lady whose name at that particular time I could not immediately save to my memory (or is it hard disk drive?). She politely explained that she was calling from an organization called “Be More”, based in Nijmegen. She had searched for Ugandan organizations online, and was fortunate to come across Pearl of Africa, the organization that unites Ugandans in the Netherlands.
She found my contact details from our website (www.pearlofafrica.nl), and she gave me a call. Later I saved her name as Kim van Broekhoven, a volunteer with Be More, a non-profit making organization (www.be-more.nl). She explained to me that Be More is a British and Dutch charity that promotes engagement in international development issues and supports small development organizations in Africa.
She added; “We support our partners by providing volunteers, involving people in the organization and by providing financial support in a way that is both beneficial and sustainable. Currently, we work with over 25 small organizations in Uganda, Malawi and South Africa. Each year, hundreds of volunteers join their programs through Be More to make a real difference”.
Kim said that, “Be More is split up in small teams. Each team is responsible for a different country. With about 10-15 persons, we are responsible for the projects in Uganda. Most of them do this on voluntary base. With this small team we have organized a day to share information about Uganda, the projects, to get to know each other, to do some teambuilding and at the end have fun”.
“All the participants went to Uganda for at least 4 weeks to volunteer at a project. So we all know something about the country and the people. And actually, we all love this country with his people!”
Kim therefore invited our organization for their team-building day at their office in Nijmegen on 14 November 2010. She asked us to conduct an interactive workshop on that day. I promised to consult my colleagues on the Board and get back to her.
The Board accepted the invitation and we decided to get some Nijmegen based Ugandans to accompany us. Our team included Ibra Ndaula, Rose Muberalugo (musaawo) and another friend of hers, Justine Makeba and myself. We left early enough, but the confusion of the street address delayed us by a couple of minutes.
The programme at the office included introductions, background of what Be More is doing and an interesting and interactive presentation on how trade and not aid will develop Africa. Be More was represented by Kim van Broekhoven, Malou Tichelor, Debbie de Munnik, Maike van de Riet and 8 other persons who I beg to excuse me for not recalling their names.
The meeting was supposed to end by 4.45 Pm, but because the discussion was very interesting, it went well beyond 6.00pm. We all assured ourselves that this was just the beginning and that there will be many more such interactions to make our organizations stronger.
Participants at the Information Sharing day in Nijmegen
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