We partnered with Sauti Women’s Fund / NeeNee Productions to Educate, emPOWER, and enCOURAGE the women featured in the award-winning documentary “Sauti (Voice)” from the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement in Uganda. | August & September 2019 – Uganda
$1,440 Donated!
UPDATE, December 2019 …
Our dear friend Napona (one of the Sauti film storytellers) also has some big news! This summer she completed her first year of school at Bugema University in Kampala. A few weeks ago, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Karyne (pictured below). Napona is taking the semester off to be with her sweet little one, and plans to return to school in January, 2020.
Betty (one of the film’s storytellers, pictured below) is living in Uganda, teaching in Gulu. She is working on some plans to start her own business. Favourite and Beatrice (Sauti’s other two storytellers) are discussing and planning ways that they can support their sister Betty’s goals from the USA as well.
You can see more about Beatrice’s film, “Life in My Shoe” and our July 2019 fundraising partnership with NeeNee productions here.
WHY this MATTERS to ME …
Why this community with whom we are partnered in Uganda matters so much to me and to our family is fueled greatly by our little one, Sophia. More than a decade ago, my family went to Gulu, Northern Uganda. We were there with some friends, working in the IDP camps, schools, and hospitals … ultimately falling in love with our Ugandan sisters and brothers for life. Sophia didn’t have the peaceMAKING credentials you would expect. She brought gifts of bubbles, balloons, and chewing gum on her peacemaking mission to Uganda. She giggled, danced, laughed, and played. (Read more in this excerpt about being peaceMAKERS from my book, Live Ablaze.) At that time, our girl, Sophia (blonde girl in the picture below and in this video), was just two.
When I heard what our friends at NeeNee Productions were up to with the Sauti Women’s Fund, I was IN and eager to do whatever I could to champion and support them. What they have done and are committed to continuing to do in the lives of our refugee sisters and brothers in Uganda is incredible.
With courage, tenacity, and tenderness, the women of Sauti are envisioning lives of their own choosing and are leading the way for their community to do the same. The Sauti Women’s Fund directly supports tuition and community development projects led by the Sauti women, including raising funds for undergraduate educational expenses, small farming initiatives, and community development projects.
ABOUT NeeNee Productions …
NeeNee Productions is a collaborative, women-led group of storytellers and their approach to documentary film is to let stories unfold organically in partnership with the communities they profile, illuminating the complex lives of underrepresented people and issues in our world today. They believe deeply in the transformative power of story to create empathy, empowerment, and inspired action. The ways in which they support people in telling their own stories as the experts on their own experiences is a beautiful and vital thing in our world today.
CREATIVE ways to CONTINUE to support this organization …
- DONATE HERE. A few creative ideas for GIVING: ASK FOR A DONATION to be made as a gift for your next birthday … GIVE a gift in honor of someone you love for an upcoming holiday or celebration. FORM A TEAM on Facebook or GoFundMe and raise funds for a special occasion or celebration in your life … or just because you want to!
- SUPPORT independent film and stream this film on your next movie night and/or host a screening here.
- SEND this page to 5 people you think would be inspired and want to join the fun!
- KNOW anyone in the film production, distribution, education world? Send them this project and let’s see how we can EXPAND this film’s connections! Email us.
- FIND & FRIEND the Sauti team on Facebook and send them a note of enCOURAGEment! CONNECT with this incredible team: Website, Insta, Facebook, Email
- WATCH – trailers & stories below.
Sauti film trailer
JOIN US as an EVERYDAY PHILANTHROPIST …
As part of our call to all to be an everyday philanthropist, each month I spotlight a project or program in the world. Our partner’s focus is in at least one of these five categories: human rights, education, health, community emergencies, and art-activism. I am blessed with a huge pool of changemakers in my community – so there is never a lack of trusted organizations with whom to partner.
This sort of “everyday philanthropy” is about an unrestrained generosity rooted in the reality of your everyday life. Generosity feels good. It is part of your purpose on the planet. It finds ways to share with others the treasure trove of whatever you have and whatever you love. It makes a difference with your small and large acts alike … living with a commitment and connection to your sisters and brothers near and far. Explore and discover your unique – right here and now – calling to be an everyday philanthropist today.
I get it: These stories and the very invitation to give and to BE philanthropists isn’t always comfortable. Or easy. Sometimes it’s the world’s pain pricking our hearts that wakes us up to see – and say yes! – to our destiny.
So, today and together, let’s dispute the suggestion that philanthropy is an exclusive club only for those deemed wealthy. Today and together, let’s dispute that the only thing that matters and makes a difference is giving in “big” ways. The movement that will be unleashed when we live as generously unrestrained philanthropists WILL light up the world.
You are loved.
We belong to each other.
Let’s standTALL together and light up the world!
xo, -Sarah Davison-Tracy, Seeds of Exchange
