TILT’s motto: “Building community, fostering economic independence.” We fund programs planned by indigenous, local non-profit organizations which sustain economic, nutritional, and social growth and life in the communities in which these nonprofits are located. Over the past ten years, these locally-administered programs have achieved impressive, sustainable success.

When Alec Johnson drowned in a tragic accident in December 2014, he left behind many small personal philanthropic projects in several countries. These included funding scholarships to secondary and postsecondary education for promising but impoverished children, support for a child rescue and family service agency in Haiti, and microfinance and agricultural projects in Uganda. His family desired to continue them to the extent they could.

Northwest Uganda, where a number of his projects were located, was also the focus of a small non-profit registered in Vermont, Transforming Individual Lives Today, Inc. (TILT). Alec’s family and friends were invited to take over its management to continue his projects, Cultivating Community. Donations in his memory and honor, a fundraising benefit in Eau Claire with Garrison Keillor, and subsequent donations provided the capital to fund about 100 school scholarships in Uganda.

Effective Giving

During a decade of managing TILT, we have learned a great deal about the needs of the people there and about their personal resources and abilities. For many reasons, we are now focusing on single grants, using funds on hand to support individual projects. These projects involve grants of US$5,000, US$10,000, US$15,000, or US$20,000 as need and contributions permit.

The grants all implement a philosophy that Alec followed. They provide funds for training, buildings, or equipment unaffordable to people for whom these will foster independence while building good community relationships.

Recipients of these funds include microfinance and mutual assistance organizations called Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) composed of residents of one village or of student vocational trainees and graduates in the same field. The group members pay dues, deposit savings, make loans, and redistribute profits to fund additional work. Those that function as self-help groups (those affiliated with St. Augustine Community Love Programme and Amazing Love Uganda) also engage in group business ventures and provide a social safety net to members. The most successful are expanding into new businesses and adding members.

Alec funded twelve of these groups specifically for women, who are disadvantaged in Ugandan culture by property ownership norms – nearly 100% ownership by men – and by marriage and divorce customs that leave them without protection. TILT has continued his legacy by funding additional groups ($3000 per group for three gropus in 2024) and granting a further $7200 to provide them with culturally-appropriate, locally-based financial literacy training provided by Living Business Education (LBE) an Ugandan affiliate of a U.S. NGO, Partners Worldwide.

Alec also funded training in no-till farming, Farming God’s Way, an outreach of Care of Creation. The farmers who were trained have seen consistently increased yields, and have passed their training on to other local farmers, including all the women in some VSLAs. Two of the trainees are seeking funding to become formally certified to teach the method.

Projects

TILT has funded many projects in the past decade. Despite the inevitable occasional setbacks and headwinds, they have improved thousands of lives, particularly by enabling sustainable, local, indigenous programs to succeed.

Challenges during COVID-19

Communication from Uganda almost vanished in 2020 and 2021, during the country’s COVID-19 lockdown. When communication was reestablished, we learned that our partners in northwest Uganda were in trouble. Consecutive years of crop failure and restrictions on travel and business during the COVID-19 pandemic had left them impoverished and food insecure. By 2021, some families had no more than half a meal per day. Restricted access to charging points for phones and other devices prevented them from telling us.

Better communication over the past three years has improved our focus and revealed a need for additional assistance.

  • Restrictions on business operations during the pandemic, including a prohibition on travel to their largest market, the Democratic Republic of Congo, left VSLAs in a desperate financial condition, without funds to reinvest in businesses or to loan to members in need. Several VSLAs had been forced to disband.

  • Crop failures from changing climate conditions left farmers, comprising 85-90% of the population, malnourished and unable to fully plant their plots. Seed – better adapted seed – was needed.

  • The Ugandan government’s push to move subsistence farmers into commercial farming has required inputs that are unaffordable to them.

  • TILT’s continued insistence that projects progress toward independent sustainability has required us to identify impediments and to provide ways to overcome them.

What Could Come Next?

Many more projects are worthy of more support than TILT has funds to support.

Grain Storage

TILT provided improved improved maize and bean seeds to several women’s VSLAs. They are harvesting more grain than can fit into the empty space in the village houses. They need storage buildings that will prevent loss from mold and insects. Two storage buildings are needed urgently for women’s groups that are distant from buildings that can be rented. After that, six storage buildings have been requested for villages that can share two by two. The cost of materials for each storage building is estimated to be US$3,000.

Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Training Spread to VSLAs

Additional training will be needed for the twelve leaders who received LBE training in Kampala. The amount and cost will be determined largely by LBE.

The twelve women’s VSLAs established through SACLP, the four offshoot VSLAs, and an unknown number of VSLA clusters of CCCDI graduates need to learn the financial and business skills taught to the trainers by LBE. There will be expenses for class materials, the trainers’ daily fee, and light refreshments during each day of training. No budget is available yet.

Continuing Construction of Reusable Menstrual Pads

TILT has funded support for locally-produced menstrual pads. Schools with inadequate funding and resources that wish to continue the program will need initial funding.

Most of the schools’ sewing machines have deteriorated. We plan to transfer intact sewing machines from schools where they will not be used to schools where construction of reusable menstrual pads is valued. Six additional machines will be needed, as well as maintenance kits and accessories. They will also need materials and training for personnel where there is no longer a trained teacher.

To avoid interruption when teachers are transferred, the communities have suggested that two women from each school’s parent teacher association should be trained to make pads and to teach others to make them. In this way, the PTA can administer the program continuously despite teacher transfers. In addition, the PTA would generate funds for sewing machine maintenance and purchase of materials as needed.

To receive benefit, the girls in each school would also need a place to change pads like the one provided to Ringe Memorial Primary School. The estimated cost for Ringe Memorial was US$2,650.

  • Total estimated cost for Avubu Primary, including menstrual hygiene washroom: US$7,500

  • Total estimated cost for each school lacking machines, including menstrual hygiene washrooms: US$8,000

Computer Skills for Youth

Fewer than five percent of secondary school graduates in Nebbi District, where SACLP is located, were computer literate as of the last census. The Chairman of Projects for SACLP would like to increase computer literacy by renting the computer lab in the best-equipped secondary school between terms and providing training in computer skills to promising students from village schools that lack computer labs. No budget has been developed yet.

Business Training for CCCDI Graduates

To train CCCDI graduates, trainers will need to travel to the villages where the graduates live for 3-4 days. The cost of materials will also need to be covered. Estimated cost: US$7,700.

Sewing Machines for CCCDI Graduates

Because CCCDI has few sewing machines, graduates are grouped in clusters in their home villages to share the available machines for business. In four groups with a total membership of 66, three graduates have to share each machine, which greatly limits their earning potential. Five groups, totaling 25 graduates, have no sewing machines at all. CCCDI has requested 30 sewing machines to allow current and future graduates more sewing time and more income. We have been assured that equipping more tailors will not oversaturate the market because the tailors can make a variety of products and because their market extends well into the Democratic Republic of Congo in a part of the country with no towns large enough to have training centers or tailoring businesses. Current demand is far greater than the graduates can meet with the available sewing machines. Estimated cost: US$7,700 US.

Cosmetology and Hairdressing Equipment to Establish a Business for CCCDI Graduates

Graduates of CCCDI’s cosmetology and hairdressing program currently have no equipment to use in a business. They do have all of the requisite skills. The cost to equip them is estimated to be US$7,150 US.

Welding Equipment for CCCDI Graduates

Graduates of CCCDI’s welding program, similarly, lack equipment. CCCDI is requesting US$5,150 to provide this.

Farming God’s Way Trainer Certification

Farmers have had to travel to Nairobi, Kenya to receive training in FGW. The cost has limited the number of farmers that we can send. The training is now available nearer, in Rwanda, for only US$320 per person including travel, room, and board. If a few farmers could achieve certification to teach the method in Nebbi District, our ability to disseminate this sustainable farming method would increase greatly.

Certification as a trainer requires taking the course three times, plus some additional training if necessary. Two farmers from Nebbi District have attended twice and would like to continue on to become certified. Estimated cost: under US$1,000/person.

Provision of Water to Villages that Lack a Safe Nearby Supply

As in all parts of the world, two classes of water sources are needed in Uganda. Clean water is needed for drinking, cooking, and washing. Water for agricultural or industrial use only needs to be free of pathogens or toxic substances.

This part of Uganda has multiple sources of water: streams and ponds, boreholes, springs, and rainfall. Boreholes and protected springs are the most reliably safe. Because of the uncertainty of finding water and the expense, we have not succeeded in providing new boreholes for safe water. Cleaning and protecting a spring, though, is within reach – reported to be US$2,500.