S.O.U.L. Foundation

A volunteer trip to East Africa unlocked a young woman’s passion to help underprivileged people one village at a time.  After graduating from nursing school, Brooke Stern and her father, Ken, traveled to the remote South-Eastern region of Uganda to volunteer for a local organization. The trip left such an impact on Stern that her career goals shifted immediately from nursing to poverty reduction and community development.

One month after returning stateside, Stern, then 23 years old, repacked her backpack and moved to the village of Bujagali Falls, Uganda.  She understood the importance of understanding a community before being able to make a sustainable difference and spent over a year listening to people’s needs and desires before she co-founded the S.O.U.L. Foundation (Supporting Opportunities for Ugandans to Learn), with her father Ken.  Brooke, now 26, and Ken envisioned the organization as a hand up not a handout and apply this philosophy to programs that focus on education, women’s empowerment, food security, and health.

 

The education program splits the cost of school tuition 50/50 with families. “By partnering with S.O.U.L. Foundation, families invest in their children’s education. Both parents and students have a significant stake in their futures, which not only empowers them but also provides motivation for academic success,” says S.O.U.L.’s Creative Director, Danielle Young.

S.O.U.L. sponsors students of all levels, including a Ugandan medical student, Daniel Muwanguzi. Daniel supported himself through university before he approached Eric Young, MD, an Internist at the Denver VA Medical Center and S.O.U.L.’s Medical Director, to ask for help to earn his doctorate in medicine. Muwanguzi became a S.O.U.L. sponsored student and is currently wrapping up his second year of medical school.  “Working with Daniel has been a true honor,” says Dr. Young.  “He embodies everything we are trying to achieve at S.O.U.L. Foundation. Daniel’s unwavering commitment to follow his educational dreams will pay exponential dividends in his community when he returns with the skill set necessary to ensure that all village women have access to a birthing center that is clean, safe and supportive.” Maternal health is central to S.O.U.L.’s health initiatives and, upon graduation, Muwanguzi will return to Bujagali Falls as the first qualified OBGYN the village has ever had access to.

Food security is another priority.  Stern had the idea to dig commercial fishponds. S.O.U.L. partnered with the World Bank to invest in the aquaculture project on the condition that villagers dig the ponds and maintain the site. Stern explains, “This allows the community members to be stakeholders in the project. It makes them appreciate that they are not working for S.O.U.L. but, instead, are creating a sustainable business for themselves which will also benefit their community.”

Women’s Empowerment is also central to S.O.U.L.’s programs.  S.O.U.L. creates opportunities for women to earn income while learning new skills. During one of her trips to Uganda, Creative Director Young taught a group of 54 women embroidery skills, entrepreneurial principles and the importance of teamwork. This group of women created a line of products, which they sold locally and internationally and bought themselves sewing machines with the profits. By developing an important skill and by continuously re-investing in their group, the women are securing job opportunities and a better future for themselves and their families.

Taken together, S.O.U.L.’s programs are facilitating sustainable poverty reduction at the grassroots level.  Through each initiative, S.O.U.L. realizes how much their mission is guided by the Ugandan people. “We are no longer teaching our Ugandan partners, they are teaching each other and they are teaching us,” says Young.