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There are moments in this journey that feel bigger than programs, products, or milestones. Moments that quietly remind me why we started in the first place. This is one of them.
Later this month, two young adults from the Acholi Quarter — Winnie and Jotham — will be married. February 28th. A date circled in my heart long before it ever appeared on a calendar.
I’ve known them both since they were children.
I first met Winnie when she was just five years old. She was small, serious, and soft-spoken — until she wasn’t. At one point she looked up at me and very matter-of-factly asked if I could bring her a doll the next time I visited. Just a simple, hopeful request delivered with complete confidence that maybe… just maybe… I would say yes.
That little girl is now a mechanical engineer.
Winnie grew up under the determined guidance of her mother, Mama Oyet — a woman whose own education was cut short by war but whose expectations for her children never wavered. Winnie once told me her mom would say, “If you’re not the best in your class, then why are you going to school?” It wasn’t pressure — it was belief. Mama Oyet demanded excellence because she saw greatness.
And Winnie delivered.
Today she works as a mechanical engineer, standing as living proof that poverty and conflict do not get the final word when resilience and opportunity work hand-in-hand. Her success is not accidental. It is layered with sacrifice, encouragement, and relentless determination — hers and her mother’s.
Jotham’s story runs parallel in the most beautiful way. Project Have Hope sponsored him as a child as well, watching him grow from a curious, thoughtful boy into a young man with a clear sense of purpose.
He once thought he might become an engineer. Life, however, redirected him with intention. In secondary school he learned that two of his siblings had sickle cell anemia. That realization changed everything. He decided he would become a doctor — not for prestige, but for impact.
Jotham completed his clinical medicine training and has since continued advancing his education, recently finishing additional coursework to become an anesthesiologist. He works long shifts, sees dozens of patients each day, and still carries an extraordinary humility about the work he does. For him, medicine has never just been about treatment.
He once told me, “It’s about the feeling you give. It’s about giving hope.”
That sentence has stayed with me for years.
Even when finances were tight, even when family responsibilities were heavy, Jotham persisted. He contributed much of his income back to his household so his younger siblings could remain in school. Success for him has always been collective, never individual.
Watching Winnie and Jotham grow up individually has been one privilege. Watching them grow toward each other has been something entirely different — something quietly extraordinary.
They are engaged now.
They are building a life together.
They are stepping into adulthood not just with degrees and careers, but with shared values of service, humility, and hope.
And I can still see the children they once were.
I can still see the little girl asking for a doll.
I can still see the young boy trying to figure out how he could make the world better.
People sometimes ask what impact looks like. They expect numbers or statistics. But impact often looks like this: two children who were once sponsored becoming a mechanical engineer and a doctor. Two families lifted. Two futures rewritten. And now — one new family beginning.
Winnie and Jotham are not exceptions because they are extraordinary. They are extraordinary because someone believed in them early, consistently, and together. Their lives are the shining example of what can happen when community replaces charity, when partnership replaces pity, and when long-term commitment replaces short-term relief.
We did not change their story alone.
They changed it themselves.
We simply walked beside them.
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Meet the women who keep Project Have Hope moving forward every day. From Mama Oyet’s steady leadership and Santina’s entrepreneurial drive to Jennifer’s rising confidence and ambition, each woman’s journey is a story of resilience, growth, and community. Together, they are not only building brighter futures for their own families — they are shaping opportunity and hope for the entire Acholi Quarter.
