MDM Internship Uganda Summer 2007

I thought it might be helpful if on this first post, you saw the plan for the trip we're on right now in Uganda. Then you may better understand the reports that will follow. Here's
David's description of this summer's internship in Uganda

As the story goes, a businessman once challenged Mother Theresa’s relief work among the poor of Calcutta, saying, “Sister, surely you know the proverb: ‘If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.’” She replied, “Yes, and I will give him a fish while you teach him to fish.” If you have ever wondered how God might use your business knowledge, skills, and interest to make a positive and lasting difference in the lives of some of the poorest people on Earth, Business As Missions wants to challenge you with an opportunity.

On May 22, 2007 Dr. David Johnson of Faulkner University’s Harris College of Business and his wife Marlea departed the U.S. for Uganda. Accompanying them are two business students, including 2007 Faulkner graduate Lexie Emerson and Harding University junior business student, Seth Neller. The four arrived in Entebbe via Dubai on May 24.

Their “base of operations” is Jinja, where Lake Victoria overflows to form the source of the Nile River. About twelve years ago, an energetic and gifted team of young missionaries initiated various community development projects which, among other accomplishments, brought the first local internet access to this city of 100,000. The Source Café and Resource Center currently operates business enterprises including a restaurant, internet café, lending library, and gift shop. Their facility also houses the Busoga Bible School and the meeting place of the Jinja church of Christ.

While in Jinja the team will visit rural women who are making banana fiber baskets and paper jewelry which we are selling in the U.S. (On the MDM website, visit the Buy from Artisans area for information on this ministry.) The team will make photos and videos and obtain personal information that can be used to develop promotional materials, as well as to encourage the women and seek to improve the relationship with them. The information will also be used in the future to assess the impact that the craft sales ministry has had on the women and the community. They will also gather information on proposed microenterprise opportunities in Jinja and the surrounding area.

From Jinja they travel northeast to Mbale, the future home of Messiah International University. MIU is a Christian university that will serve East Africa and beyond. The research team will then travel to Ft. Portal on the western border with Congo (DRC), where they will again visit contacts who are making craft items for sale in the U.S. On this stretch of their tour they will visit Queen Elizabeth Park to observe elephants, cape buffalo, hippos, warthogs, lions, and crocodiles (and more!) in their natural habitat.

By mid-June they will return to Jinja for focused research on microenterprise opportunities proposed by Ugandans in the Jinja district. In summary, our purposes are several:

(1) To work with existing contacts to strengthen our relationship with them and to obtain information that will be useful in growing the market for their crafts and assessing how our partnership with them has benefited them and their communities.

(2) To help people who want to start microenterprises, and to help them develop legitimate proposals that will be posted to our website to solicit funding via a microloan program now being developed.

(3) To use these proposals as the basis for case studies and examples that can be used to develop culturally appropriate educational materials for training in how to start and successfully operate a microenterprise according to Biblical principles.