The Ankrah Foundation in Uganda hosted our meetings with grantees and provided everyone an opportunity to meet each other, learn about one another's work, discuss challenges and successes, and share information.

We visited Micro Credit Development Trust (MCDT), an organization started by a group of women who worked in financial institutions and wanted to help poorer women improve their incomes, increase their savings, and enhance their ability to make informed decisions about their lives. MCDT now has four branches serving 5,500 rural and urban clients with loans typically below $100.

Invited to one of the weekly repayment circles, we sat in a church for nearly two hours witnessing groups of women pay back their loans and learn to read, write, and do basic arithmetic. Fahtma, an MCDT member, told us she travels nearly four hours one-way by bus to purchase mangoes or papayas to sell in the city market. In addition to her fruit stand, she operates an auto repair stand. She needs the income from both so she can buy her children school uniforms and supplies. Afterwards, we walked through one of the poorer areas in Kampala to visit women who received loans from MCDT and see their small businesses—shoe sales, tailoring, produce markets.

According to Olivia, the director of MCDT, one of the issues they struggle with is reaching constituents in rural areas. Field workers would spend all day bicycling to reach one of their branches, and they would occasionally be robbed en route. MCDT has now purchased motorcycles so the workers' commutes are more efficient and safe.

Next we visited St. Jude's Family Projects and Training Centre in Masaka, south of the equator. I've heard strange things can happen when crossing the equator, and that held true for us. Our vehicle stalled for no apparent reason, leaving us stranded on the side of the road in sweltering heat for a couple of hours. Thanks to cell phones, we were able to contact St. Jude's and they sent a car to pick us up.

Josephine Kizza, who—along with her husband John—founded St. Jude's, greeted us with a big hug, a delicious organic lunch, and a tour of their 3.7-acre demonstration farm and training center. Both local farmers and staff of other NGOs learn organic farming methods through the operation of 15 integrated agricultural projects—from animal husbandry to horticulture and tree nurseries, from bee keeping to fish farming. One of their goals is to show farmers they can grow produce anywhere—even inside tires and burlap sacks—to increase the food supply to families. In addition to the center, St. Jude's operates solar dryers that prepare organic fruit for export to Denmark and Sweden.

The last part of our visit to St. Jude's included a trip to a local village where the lessons learned were being put into practice. When we approached, our drivers turned off the engines and women pushed us to their village, while singing in Swahili to the tune of Jingle Bells. They had an elaborate reception and dance for us and took us around their village, proudly showing us their many accomplishments. Upon our return to the United States, we learned of the death of John Kizza. Our condolences to Josephine and everyone at St. Jude's.

Our last site visit in Uganda was to Tigers' Club, a newly created resettlement village outside Kampala. Located between two economically depressed areas, the club serves as a drop-in facility for the 2,500 children living on the streets—orphaned by AIDS, civil unrest, or those "divorced" from their families due to alcoholism, child abuse, or extreme poverty. The children are often initially drawn to the club's football program, but then become connected to all the services Tigers' Club offers, including outreach, rehabilitation services, showers, clothing distribution, health check ups, recreation, and bible study.

Tiger's Club seeks to reunite youth with their family or resettle them with other families. They provide vocational training and business start-ups for older boys, a return-to-school program for younger boys, and residential placement in the new halfway house we visited as a transition to foster care if they are unable to find a family for an orphaned child.

We visited a residential facility called Tuddabujja, which means "We are being made new." Tuddabujja will serve as a halfway house for those unable to be reconciled with their family or a foster family. At Tuddabujja, boy learn skills that will contribute to a family's income and therefore have an easier time finding a resettlement opportunity. Although construction is not completely finished, we were able to get a good perspective on what it would look like. There are four homes, each with room for eight boys. Four young men already were living in one of the houses with their house father. The facility includes a school; counseling resources; an organic farm with pigs, goats, cows, and chickens; a kitchen; and a football field. The young men we met had infectious smiles and were eager to show us their new home. It was a great place, and we can only imagine what it will be like at full capacity.

In Tanzania, we were met by our consultant, Jonathan Otto, and his wife, Carrol. We dined that evening on delicious local food-coconut rice and beans, chicken, veggies, and dessert cooked by one of their friends, Maria. The next day we took off to attend a two-day grantee conference that included a "mini-market." Each grantee explained their projects and invited us to learn and ask questions.

Our first visit was to Kilimanjaro NGO Cluster, a group of local NGOs and community-based organizations in the Kilimanjaro region that joined forces to combat the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. From preventive education to volunteer testing campaigns, supportive counseling to orphan support, the "Kili cluster" conducts skill-development workshops and direct technical advising for AIDS orphans support. When funds are available, it also manages small grants for orphan assistance. The skills training it provides focuses on how to identify and respond to orphans' needs, including counseling, while fostering village-level responsibility for them. An example of one of the cluster's small grants is to a lumber enterprise—run without power tools—that supports over 100 young orphans.

In several of the communities we visited, women have adopted HIV/AIDS orphans—some as many as eight. Most of the women, ranging in age from 23 to 66, had lost their husbands to AIDS. The youth sang songs and showed us their gardens and schools. We also visited a graduation program for a dozen young people who were finishing their carpentry or tailoring training to go out and support themselves in the world—at age 13.

In Arusha, we visited the National Women's Economic Groups Coordinating Council. Some 370 local groups of about five women each (over 1,800 total) have joined together for economic activities they cannot undertake alone. The organizational structure is pyramidal, with local groups electing district-coordinating committees and each of those then sending individuals on to the national level. The business we saw was their peanut butter production plant. "Groundnuts," the local word for peanuts, are sorted by hand, put through hand presses three times to achieve the right consistency, then mixed with salt, sugar, and oil while boiling to eliminate air bubbles. Finally, the peanut butter is poured into jars that are labeled and sealed. Each woman is responsible for producing four kilograms of peanut butter a day.

Our next stop, also in Arusha, was the Jatropha Project. This is a consortium of development agencies that explore the potential of oil from the seeds of a common hedgerow shrub, Jatropha curcas, as the base for soap making and other economic activities by local women. The project demonstrated that soap making is both technically and economically viable. Now, the consortium plans a full three-year campaign to greatly increase plantings of Jatropha among herders and farmers who are always looking for new crops to diversify income and increase their financial security. By working with women's groups and primary schools, soap making will be further expanded as an income earner for many more women's groups. Other uses of Jatropha oil, such as fuel in lamps and cook stoves, also will be promoted; the soap has a medicinal quality as well. (If you are interested in marketing it to tourists or to U.S. or European retail outlets, contact them at kakute@tz2000.com.)

The final grantee we visited was Karatu Development Association in Karatu. In the high country of northern Tanzania, Karatu is thousands of feet above the Rift Valley floor and a thousand feet below the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. Because the area receives adequate rainfall and boasts reasonably fertile land, overpopulation has become a problem. The results are soil degradation, deforestation, poor sanitation, and massive erosion on ever-smaller hillside farms. The main program we fund works with smaller solidarity groups, making 800 loans per year to women-owned businesses. One of the beneficiaries of the association is a young woman who runs a restaurant we visited, where she charges $1 (U.S.) for lunches consisting of rice and meat and employs three young men as assistants. Other enterprises we visited were tailoring businesses, fruit stands, and beauty salons.

Our journey through Africa, and the warm-hearted people we met, will forever hold a special place in our hearts. After this trip, the work we continue to fund there will be even more meaningful as we recall the individuals who touched our lives. Thank you to all the individuals who took time to meet with us and share their lives, countries, and programs.

Ahsante sana!

All images are by Minnesota photographer Megan Leafblad.