Elizabeth grew up in Iki-Iki, a densely populated rural area of Uganda that grows crops such as sorghum, cassava or groundnuts. She studied business management in the capital, Kampala, before coming back home. With a husband, four children, and a small chicken farm to run, she is pretty well off by the standards of most of her neighbours.
But rather than ignore the poverty around her, she decided to do something to help. Whatever was left over at home, whether food, goods, or anything spare, went to those who needed it more. She helped the elderly, the sick, people with disabilities living without any real means of support, or anyone else in need. With no organisation, and no funding, she just developed a habit of looking around and responding to what she saw.
In March 2025, she formalised that into a community-based organisation in Iki-Iki. We found her through LinkedIn and came on board in August 2025.
Now, 69 people receive a monthly distribution of food and basic necessities: from mattresses, mosquito nets, to ongoing food supplies for families who have very little. Our volunteer Vicente visited Iki Iki and came back talking about the warmth of the place, the sense of a community genuinely looking out for itself.
That’s what this project is. Not a top-down intervention, simply a local woman with a business degree and lots of drive deciding that the people around her deserve better. And then doing the hard work to make it happen every month.
There are thousands of villages like Iki Iki in Africa and around the world. Places that can seem forgotten by government and the international aid giants. Elizabeth shows the difference just one person can make when they mobilize their community by example. That infectious optimism makes her one of the most inspiring people we know.
