Amazzi Wellness is a Community Development Initiative that brings attention to and advances the livelihood of families on the remote islands of Lake Victoria, Uganda, namely Bussi. The goals of Amazzi are 1) Creating income generating opportunities and a sustainable ecosystem where none exist 2) Providing access to clean water and sanitation 3) Providing education in a safe environment for the vulnerable children of the islands. 4) Facilitate medical outreaches for the local community 5) Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We believe that empowering families to earn a living so that they can afford to send their children to school promotes an environment more conducive to healthy communities, physically, mentally and spiritually. It helps keep families intact.

It has been a wonderful 11-year journey of bringing hope and restoring dignity to Lake Victoria Island communities through implementation of various projects; digging wells to avail safe water for domestic use to the locals; supporting community vulnerable children with an assortment of items including food, tuition contribution and scholastic materials so they can continue receiving an education; purchase of land and construction of some buildings that could be used by the children and community including a chapel, and a dormitory block, a multi-purpose hall, a school house, pig farm, 11 acres of farmland, inter alia.

We have since July 2024, successfully redesigned our program layout, strategized more efficient implementation models and launched new programs. With fishing banned on Lake Victoria, yet it was these communities’ primary source of income, there was dire need to transition our social change initiatives to better suit the vast community needs. In order to maximize impact per dollar spent, we have leaned more into Community-Based implementation.

Our closely interlinked multi-tier community transformation initiatives have now expanded to include a livelihoods component. The new programs/projects are enshrined in a Community-Driven Development (CDD) model, focusing on addressing the local needs of these communities through a more inclusive family empowerment approach. This focuses on boosting Household incomes, thus equipping families to have a better living standard through demand-driven, scalable and low-cost local solutions that can translate into bigger impact per unit currency spent and are more sustainable.

This is intended: to meet the prevalent vast community needs more effectively and efficiently, create program sustainability and growth, broaden our resource base, expand our user-group outreach as well as empower the communities to own and resourcefully solve their problems. This way, we weaken the donor dependency syndrome and promote stewardship and resourcefulness, which is the most sustainable and cost-effective way to break the cycle of vulnerability among these communities.