Local mother-daughter team head to Uganda, request donations

In the coming months, local community members, Michelle Workowski and Alena Mack are heading off to Uganda to volunteer with a small, community-based organization that works with people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The organization, RWEYOWA, which stands for ‘Rescue Widows, Elderly, Youth and Orphans with AIDS’, was started after a group of concerned citizens became aware of the conditions of people living with and affected by HIV. They started the organization to work toward improving the living conditions of people living with HIV/AIDS and increasing HIV education and sensitization opportunities in their community of Namasuba. Namasuba is a semi-rural community close to the capital city of Kampala. RWEYOWA reaches out to community members through donations of food and clothing, vocational training opportunities, and the procurement of scholarships for orphans to attend primary and secondary school. They also help to administer treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS through a partnership with a local treatment center, and by providing home-based care and health status checks to individuals and families who are unable to make it to a clinic.

Michelle and Alena will be spending their days supporting the organization in any way they can. Michelle will be focusing mainly on vocational training, community outreach and will also be teaching English in a local primary school. Alena, as a Public Health practitioner specializing in health education and outreach will be working with the organization in a professional manner to help build the capacity of the organization while taking part in all of their organizational activities.

The mother-daughter team is hoping to take as many donations for the organization and community as possible. The main donations that they are seeking are monetary and medical supplies. As the organization performs health status checks during their outreach programs and works with individuals in all stages of HIV disease and AIDS, they are in need of many medical supplies. Any monetary donations will go straight to the organization for use in their outreach programs and for donations to the community; none of the donations will go to administrative expenses or travel expenses, as they are covering these themselves. In order to raise funds, Michelle and Alena are holding a raffle, kindly sponsored by local businesses: The Nature of Things, The Viroqua Food Cooperative, and Driftless Fair Traders. Tickets are available at numerous businesses throughout Viroqua, and the prizes are on display at the VFC. 

For more information on the organization, the ladies’ trip, or how to donate in other ways, please contact Alena or Michelle at (608)627-1952 or alenamack@gmail.com. Or see the following websites: www.rweyowa.org, www.alenaandmichelleinuganda.blogspot.com.