Leadership in Action Project
I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to travel to Jinja, Uganda with the Laidlaw
Programme for my Leadership in Action project.
My project was in conjunction with WORI- the Women’s Rights Initiative. WORI are a registered
charity in Uganda, set up nearly 15 years ago by three local Ugandan Women. Their aim is to tackle
violence towards women and focus on their education and empowerment.
Originally, I had planned to join WORI in their Museum Project. Cultural research was a central
element of my research project last year, and it was planned that I would lead a documentation
project to gather content for the museum. However, when I arrived over and completed my
induction in the office, I was tasked with researching potential grants that the organisation could
apply for to fund the museum. I did this work for a week: organised meetings with potential private
donors, the UN Women’s offices in Kenya, and various other organisations that provide financial
support to similar projects. I also was in contact with other women’s museums in the continent and
discussed their road to success to map WORI’s plan against it.
However, after a week behind the desk, trawling through applications, organising virtual meetings,
writing concept notes etc, I felt like I could be doing a lot more to benefit the organisation. The
cultural immersion was quick and not at all gradual- despite only being there for little over a week, I
felt like I was integrating into the community as well as really understanding the sort of work that
WORI do and their impact on the community that I never would have understood via their website.
Through filling out grant applications, and talking and researching other similar NGOs, I could also
see where the organisation was lacking.
I met with the chairperson, Rose, to discuss my concerns with the current work I was doing; I didn’t
feel like it was impactful, it wasn’t what I travelled over to do, and I didn’t think that I was bringing
anything valuable to the task. I then proposed a new project idea to her- one that I felt would be
impactful and I could use my academic and leadership skills for the benefit of the organisation.
During my time behind the desk, I noticed how little evidence, statistics and testimonials that the
organisation had to back up their applications. The women working in the office could recount any
number of stories about women they had helped at the drop of a hat, remembering all the minute
details and the names of their kids. However, this couldn’t be shown when applying for grants or
improving visibility.
For the remaining 5 weeks, myself and another intern undertook a three-fold documentation
project. The documentation consisted of:
1. Written and visual testimonials from survivors who were either currently staying at the
shelter or had been rehabilitated and trained there and were currently living happily and
independently
• Goal: To empower survivors and give them the opportunity to tell their story and
own their narrative. When given permission, their stories can be shared on WORI’s
social media, various NGO forums, and used in applications.
2. Written and visual accounts from the workers at the shelter and at WORI. The aim was to
highlight the work that WORI and the Nyonga Women’s Shelter do as well as increase their
visibility in the area so more women would know about the organisation and what they
stood for.
• Goal: To document the work that WORI does. The videos can be shown at
community outreach days and posted on social media. It also gives the workers the
recognition for all their hard work.
3. I independently set up a digital documentation database for the shelter. Following a
discussion I had with the shelter team, they talked about their desire to go digital but did not
have the understanding or resources.
• Goal: Through the introduction of a digitised system, shelter users can be processed
a lot quicker and more efficiently. For each survivor that comes to the shelter, there
are 14 forms to fill out. Through this digital system, each survivor’s records can be
tracked. There is a command that will generate statistics for example: average age of
the women in the shelter, average number of children, percentage of women in the
shelter as a result of emotional abuse or physical abuse etc. These statistics can be
used in grant applications, NGO reports, or for impact posts on social media.
We succeeded in completing all these objectives over the course of the five weeks. We conducted
nearly fifteen interviews with survivors and shelter workers- wrote accounts based on the interviews
and edited the video content. These have been posted to NGO forums, their social media, and have
been used in grant applications. WORI now has a pool of resources to improve their visibility online
as well as to further strengthen their grant applications.
The digital documentation system for the shelter is up and running. I trained the workers there on
how to use it and wrote a simple manual with steps on the functionality, how to edit it, add new
files, generate stats, etc so it can continue to be used well into the future.
Leadership Development
I have learned so much about good leadership from so many elements of the programme. However,
I feel it is through the mentors I have been fortunate enough to have that I learned the most. Rose,
the head of WORI, is everything I aspire to be as a leader. Getting to interact with her, learn from
her, and be challenged by her was one of the most impactful experiences I had during my Leadership
in Action experience. Despite all the adversity she faces in her own life, she continues to work
tirelessly running her organisation to ensure the welfare of women and girls. The work WORI do is
akin to fighting an uphill battle. Despite their best efforts, the workers in the organisation will never
see widespread changes to people’s mentality towards women in their lifetime in Uganda. Despite
this fact that they are well aware of, every day they come into the office with drive and
determination as they recognise that helping one woman is important and is enough. In one
particular conversation I had with Rose, I confronted her about this. Despite only being in the office
for six weeks, there were many days were I reflected on the hopelessness of it all: having to hear
young girls saying how their sexual assault was ‘in God’s plan’ for them, and reassuring other women
who were afraid that their husbands didn’t love them because they weren’t beaten,a nd countless
other interactions, I often questioned how much impact there could be had when you’re fighting
against centuries of cultural and societal norms. I asked her how she continues to pursue her mission
when she knows she will never see this change in her lifetime. She told me how she recognises this,
and that there are some days that she does wonder why she does it, but at the end of the day she
recognises that without WORI, there would be so many more women suffering.
It was an interaction that has really stuck with me and made me think about how that is the type of
leader I want to be and reminded me of how the importance of the work you do can’t be, and
shouldn’t be, measured by the scale of it.
My leadership experience during my LIA was a lot different in comparison to my summer of
research. My first summer was very self-directed and quite insular in a sense, but my second
summer couldn’t have given me more exposure. I believe this gave me a holistic development of my
leadership skills. Through the positive reinforcement I received from my supervisor when I took
initiative in my research (e.g. to try a different method/ take other factors into consideration, etc), it
gave me confidence in my abilities and capabilities. This allowed me to first of all come up with a
new idea and then to pitch it to my boss.
Looking back to myself from eighteen months ago when I first started the Laidlaw Programme, I
don’t think I fully realised the scope of opportunities that it would provide me with and how much I
would develop as a leader and as a person in general. Being a student who spent most of their
college time in the midst of a pandemic, it’s easy to feel like you missed out on so much. Without the
programme I never would have learned so much about such a wide breadth of topics (ethical
leadership, conflict resolution), developed my skills (public speaking, networking), and met so many
inspiring people. From developing my academic skills during Summer 1, to having a once in a lifetime
experience by getting to go to Uganda and do real, impactful work during Summer 2, and all the
workshops, seminars, and conversations had with Laidlaw colleagues in between- there is no doubt
the culmination of all these experiences have made me who I am today.