George Odora, a 28 year-old citizen of northern Uganda, who lived through the entire 22 years of civil war in Uganda, has established a program to build homes to allow those displaced by the war to return to their farmland. His efforts were first recognized by the German Foundation, Dekeyser & Friends, with which CIME is affiliated. D&K gave Mr. Odora a grant to enable him to begin building houses in Uganda, and asked CIME to mentor his work. CIME invited George to the US in the Fall of 2011 where he was the guest of honor and speaker at five receptions, three sponsored by CIME in CT, NYC and Washington, DC, and two Rotary International meetings.
Odora's US visit, involving "friendraiser" receptions, resulted in many new and useful ideas for George to add water wells to his offering as well as agricultural assistance. George left the US with enough in donations to build several additional homes. In addition, George has been introduced to Rotary International's program for drilling water wells in Uganda. Finally, CNFA, one of the largest US NGOs supporting private sector development in the agricultural sector with US-government financed programs in Uganda, has agreed to send to volunteers from the US Farmer-to-Farmer program to assist George's beneficiaries in developing strategies for their farms, from which seeds to plant to harvesting, storage, and selling their produce for the best possible price; this latter effort will be of great benefit to George by enabling his beneficiaries to repay him over time, with interest, so that his venture is truly sustainable ... in fact, with CIME assistance, George believes his program will grow significantly in the next few years.
