Our team is safely back, following our May 1-9 trip to Uganda, and the fog of jet lag has settled! We're excited to share all about God's good work in Africa, and each month over the summer, we will feature one of the ways in which your gifts and prayers are at work in the lives of people across the globe.

In 2019, our H3-Uganda partner Rodgers Atwebembeire visited us here in the States and shared one of his primary concerns for the people of his country. Young women struggle to complete their education and then struggle to find work in an impossibly competitive job market. Often they fall prey to marriages of convenience, human trafficking, or life on the streets.

The American H3 team started brainstorming ways that we could be involved in this issue, especially the need to find educated young women jobs. We landed on an internship in which the girls could be paid as they were taught skills that would give them a leg up in the job market. But it was our African H3 team that was able to fine-tune our ideas into a realistic and sustainable program.

The P3 Program selects a young woman with a secondary degree to work full-time for a non-profit ministry-focused organization, sponsoring her for a year of employment that will hone her skills, give her job experience, and also be of service to her community.

One of the highlights of our trip this year was the privilege to meet our first P3 Intern Eunice Biira, who works for Project Princess Initiative.

"I am so thankful every day and thank God for the Project."

As we spoke with Eunice, we were impressed by her determination of spirit, her eloquence and grace. This young woman had received a college education but had been looking for work in Kampala for several years. As she puts it, when someone finishes university, the competition is fierce. You are a fresh graduate but you are competing with professors and people who have been working for years. Many job placements are so corrupt that they require a bribe up front.

H3 Uganda placed Eunice with the Project Princess Initiative, an NGO in Kampala which helps girls from poor backgrounds who are vulnerable and struggle to attend school. Eunice's boss at Project Princess was the director of an elementary school. She had two teens in crisis come to her in the space of a few months looking for employment, and she realized that even more than employment, they needed to finish their primary education. Project Princess invites community board members to sponsor a girl to get through school. By the beginning of 2020, the board was sponsoring 17 girls - who were then sent home during Uganda's long education lockdown.

Eunice started in 2021 by phoning 10 of the 17 girls from the original group who were still school-age. One of the great achievements of Project Princess is that none of those original 17 girls became pregnant during lockdown, and Eunice was able to start fresh when schools reopened. She mentors girls during Saturday classes in which they work on their skills such as making sandals, crocheting, and cooking. The weekend program has grown to include 45 girls! On Monday-Friday, Eunice and her team visit 7 area schools, reaching over 1000 girls and also some boys, sharing Christian devotionals in the schools, and providing guidance counseling, career guidance, and hygiene care.

Eunice highlighted that one of the greatest values of the Project Princess program is that she's showing the girls the value of an entrepreneurial spirit. Some of them are already able to make a few shillings before and after school to support themselves and help their families.

AND....

We just received word this week... Eunice has received a job offer from the Project Princess Initiative, starting in July! We are already looking at the next candidate for the program to start in the next few months. Please pray for Eunice as she transitions and for wisdom as we search for the next intern and the perfect organizational fit!

Photos from Eunice and the Princess Project Initiative: Girls learn to play a traditional stringed instrument that is specific to the area.

Young boys in traditional garb get to participate too.

Learning and performing traditional dance

Eunice volunteered all three days with the H3 medical camps! Here she is preparing deworming medicines along with Steph and Reagan for the children at Zana Community School.

Eunice lives with her aunt Esther (in red, second from left), who has been a part of H3 since the very beginning, in 2012. ALL of the people in this photo except the muzungu in the middle are currently Esther's "babies" and living in her home (Eunice is in purple).