There are dozens of women we admire in the AIA community, and if we shared each of their stories this email would be very, very long. So we've decided to share a little bit about one woman in particular, Nabulime Gloria. Gloria is the first (but hopefully not the last), to embark on an exciting new journey with Action in Africa, one that will see her transition from being an Action in Africa student to an Action in Africa employee.

Drumroll, please!!! Please allow us to introduce you to David Masiko, who now joins our team as the new Action In Africa Country Director. David holds a Master’s Degree in Human Rights Law, and a post-graduate diploma in project planning and management. His career spans more than 19 years, and his most recent accomplishments include working as the Country Representative for the Against Malaria Foundation and as a consultant for the International Federation of Red Cross Societies. He is an Organization and Programme Development Specialist. We sat down for an interview to get to know him better. (PS: He is a really cool person)

I once heard someone say that, "January is for dreamers and February is for doers." Well...we did a lot of dreaming (or in our case planning) in January, and now we're hard at work implementing all we've dreamed. This month we will welcome a new Country Director, dig in with our new Board of Directors, and grow with our expanding teams both in Uganda and the United States.

If you recall, in our first blog post from this series featuring the Action in Africa scholarship program, we discussed the need to create a sustainable humanitarian effort. Our mission is to empower people within the community to be self-sustaining. One of the best ways to do that is to inspire the students in the scholarship program to understand the importance of social work. This story represents the full circle of the AIA scholarship program.

The holidays are once again upon us and we want to be the first to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! This year, as ever, we are grateful for YOU - our community of unyielding supporters. If you're a longtime member of the AIA community you know that the holidays are our busiest season. And if you're new here, welcome! Whether new or old, we're so grateful you're here and we hope you'll join us as we dive into the exciting weeks ahead.

Ndagire Joan is one of the University Students on the AIA University scholarship program, she joined the Action in Africa family in 2005 when she was supported at St Johnson primary school, one of our very first partner schools. Today she is at Makerere University where she is soon graduating with an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and majoring in procurement. She took a few minutes from classes to us about her experience as part of the AIA scholarship program.

You have heard a lot about the pipeline of our scholarship program in our previous blog posts; The genesis and evolution of the program, the selection criteria, and the impact of the program on parents and students in the Nakuwadde community, and most recently about the AIA Internship program which is available after graduating from the Secondary Scholarship Program. Well, Action in Africa’s efforts of empowering the community through education continues after the internship program to the new University program. Over the next few blog posts, we will explain to you how that works.

Upon successful completion of Secondary School, students can apply to intern with Action in Africa as a direct pathway to joining our University Scholarship Program. The AIA Internship Program is competitive, only offering 5 slots a year. This 9-month program is an opportunity for students to work with Action in Africa prior to joining University, gaining hard and soft skills to help set them up for success once on campus. This includes public speaking skills, computer classes, resume building, participating in community service projects, budgeting and so much more.