Growing One Mango Tree
Gulu District, Northern Uganda
Yale University
Julie Carney, USA, Yale University
SECTION 1
Begin with a two-sentence summary paragraph of the goals and intentions of the project. Continue
with a three to five sentence paragraph describing the project and its contribution/impact. Complete
this section with a one to two sentence personal statement suitable for use as a quotation from you as
the project leader about how and why the project was valuable.
2 sentence summary
In an effort to extend One Mango Tree’s reach to women in displacement camps outside of Gulu Town,
the Projects for Peace Grant allowed OMT to expand its operations to 20 women in two internally
displaced camps in Gulu District, Northern Uganda. Over a three-month training session, Lucy Auma
and Prisca Opiyo, tailors with whom One Mango Tree works in Gulu Town, will train these women so
they can learn skills to become tailors for the local population and for One Mango Tree, which will
provide them with a sustainable source of income.
3-5 sentence paragraph
With the help of Gulu Women’s Economic Development and Globalization, an indigenous NGO, One
Mango Tree identified twenty women in two internally displaced persons camps for the training. The
grant helped provide all training materials, rental for two training spaces in the two camps, and salary
and transportation for the trainers to the camps. With the help of GWEDG, we conducted baseline
surveys of all the female tailors and trainees, so that we can assess the program’s impact over time. The
training program will be completed at the end of October, after which the tailors will graduate onto
becoming tailors for One Mango Tree. The grant also afforded us the opportunity to re-launch the
website (coming in October 2008) with added features so that consumers will have a clearer picture of
how their dollars are invested.
2 sentence personal statement
There is arguably nothing more humanitarian in northern Uganda right now than bringing business to
vulnerable women. One Mango Tree seeks to bring marketable skills, marketable connections, and
sustainable incomes to women traditionally unconnected to the global market. The Projects for Peace
grant enabled us to see immediate benefits as the women became increasingly independent and
productive.
SECTION 2
Provide details not covered above, including organizing the project, any collaborations, on-the-ground
experiences and lessons learned, budget realities, long-term impact and sustainability of the project.
Thanks to the support of the Projects for Peace Grant, our progress so far has been tangible, in the form of
sewing machines and liner fabric, thread and hand needles. But it is our less tangible progress that has
been more meaningful: the relationships that have developed between Lucy and Prisca, One Mango Tree
tailors and now teachers, and the twenty women participating in the training.
I’ll attempt to explain this progress in anecdotes. It is arriving at our training space at Bobi camp, Prisca
reading over the lesson plans she wrote up at home the night before. This is her first time teaching but
she is a natural—a quiet, and patient instructor. It is the group of women, many of them coming to the
training from miles away, sitting patiently at the door to the training center and scolding us for being a
few minutes late. It is one young woman, quiet and focused as she peers at her stitches while Lucy
watches closely, providing gentle feedback. It is the occasional laughter that erupts, as the women show
each other their mistakes. It is the way they call Lucy and Prisca “teacher”. And it is Lucy and Prisca
collecting all the women’s work at the end of the day so they can take it home and grade it.
During the trainings, I sit on the side, just watching and documenting; this is entirely Lucy, Prisca, and
the women’s initiative. Being useless has never felt so good.
Selecting the trainees proved more difficult than we’d imagined, as many of the women who were
initially selected by GWED-G were too old to learn tailoring, a trying profession that makes severe
demands on your back, your wrists and your eyes. But all the initial women were desperate to
participate, even if they weren’t strong enough physically. But we had to favor “business” over pity; if
they were not going to succeed at the trainings, then it would be a waste of everyone’s time. The
wrangling for a seat at the training demonstrated both the desperation of life in the camps and how
NGOs can sometimes unintentionally create conflict by privileging some over others in their programs.
This is why we asked them to bring their daughters or a female relative with whom they “share a pot.”
Everything is usually shared among families, so they would presumably be benefiting if they bring their
daughters or daughters-in-law. With some time, and speeches from Lucy, they’ve done so, some more
reluctantly than others. Now—at both camps—we have two groups of young, eager and committed
women. The training has not been without the complications of negotiating transport and rental spaces,
of women falling sick from malaria, of broken sewing machines. But by the end of August, things settled
themselves, though the budget ran out more quickly than we would have liked.
While there is a divide between Lucy and Prisca—women from Gulu Town—and the women in the
camps, many of the women have been opening up to Lucy, and over time, she says she can build their
trust. Some of them are now approaching her and discussing their family situations, their children, and in
some cases, their HIV-positive status. She explained to me that they tell her they are happy to be
participating in the training because it is not as back-breaking as digging in their own gardens at home. I
am happy that the women are opening up to Lucy, and that Lucy is beginning to counsel them in her
own way. Lucy has suffered so much herself, and her empathy is genuine.
Lucy has not read the books and articles I have on ‘gender-based development’ or ‘women as
peacebuilders’. She’s lived these theories—from being a victim of domestic violence to becoming a
mother and teacher for women who are victims of domestic violence and vulnerable situations. And she
makes me believe in the power of good leadership and charisma. I had a very old professor, with decades
of experience in development, who ended seminar one day with the comment that so much of
development is based on charisma. I think we initially dismissed him as senile, but I think I understand
his comment a little bit better after seeing Lucy in action.
The training is ongoing, and we are in the midst of designing a program that will allow the new tailors to
continue to make One Mango Tree products from their homes in the camps. At the same time, One
Mango Tree is in the midst of indigenizing operations by hiring a Ugandan Country Director, making
Lucy a stronger business women, so that she can coordinate orders, and make payments. Over the long
term, One Mango Tree would like to build a center in Gulu that can provide women in Gulu with a
healthy and positive place of work.
And of course, One Mango Tree is also in the midst of expanding demand and operations on the United
States end, expanding the website and establishing wholesale connections. Connecting consumers to the
producers continues to be our biggest challenge.