Warm greetings from Okere City!
As we reflect on 2024, I am filled with pride and gratitude for the incredible strides we have made together. This year, we have continued to live our motto, ensuring that a living wind blows ever stronger through Okere City.
Education has remained at the heart of our work. Our schools have grown remarkably, with over 500 children now enrolled in both our Early Childhood Development Center and Primary School. We also provided technical and adult education to 100 teenage mothers and 120 adult women respectively. Thanks to our partners, Segal Family Foundation and Tenacre Foundation, we have been able to ensure that accessing to life skills and relevant knowledge is made accessible to the people of Okere, especially women, youth and children.
2024 has also been a year of new beginnings and bold initiatives:
Okere Shea Cooperative Expansion: With 500 women actively engaged, we have increased our sales by 65% because we extended our reach to new markets, including the USA, through e-commerce platforms like Amazon. Our Shea Festival attracted 5,000 participants, celebrating culture and environmental conservation.
Aero-Kwan Adult Literacy Program: Now serving 200 women, this initiative has increased literacy rates by 18% in the past two years, empowering rural women in Okere to take charge of their futures.
Cultural and Creative Development: The Okere City Studio launched to promote youth talent and preserve Luo culture through music and arts. Our #VisitOkere tourism project continues to attract visitors, showcasing the beauty and resilience of our community. Isn't welcoming over 1,000 visitors in just 12 months truly amazing?
This year, our efforts were recognized with two prestigious awards. Okere City won the Cultural Tourism Award from Uganda's Ministry of Tourism for our outstanding contribution to promoting cultural heritage and tourism. Additionally, I was honored with the U.S. State Department's Humphrey Fellowship Alumni Award. The cash prize from the award enabled us to increase our solar energy generation capacity to 1KW furthering our commitment to sustainability and innovation.
Our transformative journey continues to inspire. Our work has been featured on CGTN Africa, Panorama newspaper, and other local news channels in Uganda, celebrating our dedication to community transformation. Partnerships with organizations like the Ecovillage of Ithaca have enabled us to have a team of committed volunteers in the US who continue to support efforts to improve our shea butter sales.
To all who share our vision for a prosperous and sustainable Africa, I invite you to join us in this journey. Whether through your time, skills, or resources, your support can make a difference. Let us continue building brighter futures together.
Ojok Okello
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