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WHO WE ARE
Musizi Joy Foundation is a Christian UK registered charity (1107290) working in Kampala, Uganda. We focus on community development projects that empower and provide for women, children and youth in some of the most deprived communities in the city.
OUR VISION
Our vision as a charity is to work as a grassroots organisation, empowering and inspiring some of the poorest people in Kampala. We want to work with communities and to listen to what the communities themselves want and aspire to. We believe in relationships and being alongside people in the community rather than imposing projects on people. As we come alongside people in the community we are able to see transformation come from within, so that the community is empowered to improve their own neighbourhood.
We are on a journey and are always learning and are excited to see how the projects will grow in depth in the coming years and in innovation through the community’s creativity.
HOW IT STARTED
In 2010 Sam and Chloe (now married) left the UK to spend their Gap Year in Uganda. They met with a local NGO and shared their passion for work in the slum communities. In November 2010 they approached 15 women in Kivulu Slum Community and asked how they could support in the short time they were there. The list of suggestions was long, so we focused on just a few to start with; weekly women’s meetings (including finding a market for their handicrafts) and sports and children’s weekly activities.
As the projects got going it became clear that it was only going to grow. Sam and Chloe soon managed to register as a UK charity and started looking for funding to support the projects and grow their team. In 2019, after a long process of discernment, Sam and Chloe moved to Kampala and rented a house a few hundred yards from one of the slum communities. The house hosts an office for the community development work as well as accommodation and a training room for the cycling project.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
As time has gone on, we have decided to register as an independent NGO in Uganda. The British charity now gives directly to MJF in Uganda.
Currently we have a staff team of 4 Ugandans, of which 3 are Community Development workers and one part-time overseer working alongside Chloe.
Presently we have 3 main emphases
- Women and Small business opportunities
- Young Mothers
- Children & Sponsorship
In parallel with this work in the slum communities, Sam is working with young women and men, developing a cycling team. The team has been competing in online cycling races (becoming the leading team in Africa on Zwift) and now has four riders that have been awarded professional contracts with teams racing in Africa and further afield. The cycling project is also building Mountain Bike ‘Pump tracks’ and hope to build a Velodrome and other facilities that will enable international events. Sam’s heart is to promote cycling on the continent and to showcase the talented riders that he is working with. At the same time the project offers an opportunity to mentor / role-model with the young people. Chloe’s team in the communities are also making contact with sport-interested young people who might feed into the cycling project.
Sam also would like to host cycling tours for cycle-tourists which will showcase the beauty of Uganda as well as donating funds to the Musizi Joy community development work.
Funds for the cycling project are carefully restricted so that we know that donors and sponsors know where their funds are used.