Hey there! 👋 Thanks for stopping by.  I'm Karen. Founder of Project Have Hope. For the past 19 years (geez! I'm getting old!), I've straddled my life between Uganda and the US. I've watched kids become adults and adults become empowered.  I've cried a thousand tears and have shared even more laughs.  I've grown in countless ways.  And better yet, I've seen the power of what we can achieve when we work together.

🤝⁠

The Beginning

Project Have Hope all started because I was fortunate to meet some inspiring women during a trip to Uganda back in 2005.  I’d like to say that I had a plan when we established Project Have Hope, that I had a clear idea of what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. I didn’t.  All I knew was that I “wanted to do something,” so I set about to do it.  (Side note. Do you want to have a positive impact?  Don’t wait.  Just start ‘doing’ and let the pieces fall where they may. And yea, the pieces aren’t always going to fit, but that’s just part of the beauty of this game called life.)

The Goal

I wanted to help the amazing women I had met become financially self-sufficient. 

I wanted the women to be able to support themselves and their families. I saw the tragic effects of domestic violence, where women were unable to leave abusive situations.  Where they had no voice.  No power. I wanted each woman to have the power to make their own choices.  Something I’ve had the privilege to do my
entire life.  Blessed by a supportive family, access to education and employment, things may not always be easy, but I’ve had the power of choice.

Reality

So that’s what I set out to do.  It hasn’t always been perfect or successful, but I keep trying, the women keep trying and we keep working together trying to make all the pieces fit a little better.

Education and vocational training have taken up a lot of the puzzle pieces.  Both women and their children have been able to gain steady income through employment or independently started small businesses based around the skills they have acquired through our programs.