Nonprofits You Should Know About: Amazima Ministries

Happy Monday! Because yes, Mondays can be happy... as long as you've had the right amount of caffeine. ;)

Anyway, I’m really excited about today’s post because it marks the beginning of a series I’ve been wanting to write for awhile. Before officially launching this blog, I toyed with the idea of creating a website to feature my favorite nonprofits, since that is one of the things I'm most passionate about. I decided to go with a more personal space where I could share all my passions, but promoting awesome organizations that make a difference has always remained on my heart.

That’s what led to the creation of this series. The plan is to feature a different nonprofit every week or so, and share about the impact they are making and how you can get involved or contribute. Today’s organization is called Amazima Ministries, and they have been one of my favorites for awhile.

WHO THEY ARE:

Amazima Ministries is a small Ugandan based nonprofit started by Katie Davis when she was just 18 years old. I first heard about this organization when I read Katie’s book, Kisses from Katie, and learned about Amazima's efforts to improve the lives of Ugandan families through sponsorships, selling beautifully crafted jewelry, and other methods.

What I most love about Amazima is the fact that they are Ugandan based. They employ local Ugandans, use locally sourced foods and materials and are permanently on the ground, building long-term relationships with the communities they serve. Keep reading to learn about some of their programs, as described on their website.

Founder Katie Davis Majors with some of the women from Masese, Uganda

WHAT THEY DO:

Education Sponsorship Program:

Our Education Sponsorship Outreach is focused on providing the opportunity for children in the Buziika area to receive education, nutrition, medical care and discipleship that would otherwise not be available to them.

Women's Beading Circle:

At the beginning of 2010, Amazima Ministries started the Masese Women’s Beading Circle, because we saw the need to develop a self-sustaining vocational program for mothers in the Masese community. Because of the Beading Circle these ladies are now able to rely on a steady income, which has allowed them to be able to turn away from work that was harmful and dangerous.

Masese Feeding Outreach:

Amazima Ministries now feeds 1,200 children lunch every Monday through Friday in the community of Masese. The Feeding Program is predominantly funded by the sale of necklaces that are made by mothers from the community (through the Beading Circle). Through their hard work, these women are not only able to earn a fair wage, but also to raise extra funds to continue feeding their community.

Medical Care Outreach:

Amazima provides physicals, HIV testing and counseling, basic hygiene education, malaria prevention, malnutrition rehabilitation, and medical financial assistance for many individuals. We work closely with our social worker in Masese who assesses, monitors, overseas all medical needs that arise in Masese.

Farming Outreach:

In an effort to continually improve our programs and help the families we work with become more self-reliant, the Amazima Farming Outreach was started in 2012. Farming God’s Way training classes are held on a bi-annual basis and are taught by our farm staff.

The Amazima School:

We felt prompted to explore the possibility of a secondary school that could finish the good work we started in the lives of our sponsored children. Through endless prayer, consultations from experts and healthy dialogue, we believe the next step God has for Amazima is the establishment of The Amazima School, just outside of Jinja, Uganda (they are currently in the process of opening this school).

Whew... they do a lot of (awesome) stuff!

IMPACT AND RATINGS:

Amazima currently sponsors over 700 children with school fees, feeds 1,200 daily Monday through Friday and employs 31 women through the beading circle.

Charity Navigator is a great resource that rates nonprofits in terms of their transparency and financial spending. I couldn't find a rating for Amazima (probably because it's a smaller organization), but whenever I can, I'll add it onto future posts in the series. You can view Amazima's year in review here to get a look at their impact for 2015.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED:

One of the best ways to support this awesome organization is by becoming a sponsor. This works similarly to other child sponsorship programs, except that you won't be specifically sponsoring one student. Instead, your money will be pooled with the rest of the sponsorships to support all the kids in need of school fees and supplies. Amazima sends updates to sponsors where they highlight certain kids so that you can get to know some of the lives your money is impacting. And you can also send letters to the kids, which I think is super neat. :)

If you're not ready to commit to a sponsorship, another great (and fashionable) way to support Amazima is by purchasing some of their locally-made necklaces and other jewelry. I purchased the original Katie necklace awhile ago and I love it! It's so bright and beautiful:

Here are some more of their lovely pieces. You can head to their shop to check out more.

Well, that's it for today's post! I had so much fun writing this and I hope it motivated you to support this awesome organization in any way that you can! Also, please let me know what are some of your favorite nonprofits, and I may feature them later on in this series. :)