“We Help That Person Do More”
Olivia Damalie Sserabira, who served as a Relief Society president in the Mengo Ward, has been described as the glue that holds the congregation together. Her power to bring people together goes far beyond church and extends into the world through the Peace and Hope Training Center, the nonprofit organization she founded.
“The main aim of Peace and Hope is to improve people’s lives, especially the girl child,” Olivia declared. “Our mission is to foster community-based initiatives that promote charity, solidarity, and social justice, which could later become instruments of development in the entire country, or in the entire East Africa, or the entire Africa, or the entire world.”
Beginning in 2006, Olivia focused on providing academic and vocational training for poor children denied basic education. In 2007, Peace and Hope began sheltering young homeless girls and providing counseling as well as education. In 2009, Olivia started a gardening program, teaching 200 families how to grow food in sacks and grow a variety of nutritious vegetables. Under Olivia’s program, each family trained in sack gardening was obligated to help their neighbors start their own sack gardens. This principle of “training trainers” set in motion a chain reaction of people sharing new skills.
The Peace and Hope Training Center has continued to expand. Trainees learn to use computers, bake bread, and make a variety of goods, including soap, banana-fiber hats, spoiled-bean necklaces, sweaters, reusable sanitary pads, and mats. The center also teaches literacy in English, Swahili, and French and offers maturation clinics that teach young girls about women’s health and the prevention of HIV.
Olivia Sserabira (standing in the center) with missionaries and students at the Peace and Hope Training Center, 2009.
Olivia is undaunted by the fact that many of the Center’s trainees come with very few economic or educational resources. “We help that person do more,” she said.
“I came to Peace and Hope Training Center because there are good resources,” said Agnes, a teenage client. “I came here because I saw the courses that I really liked, like hairdressing, catering, and computers. So I came here so that I gain a future because after studying I think I’ll get a job.”
Peace and Hope has partnered with Church humanitarian initiatives on projects such as health and hygiene trainings, clean-water projects, and maturation education. Peace and Hope invests resources in helping trainers gain confidence not only in technical skills but also in teaching skills, enabling them to establish new initiatives among women in remote villages.
The work of the Peace and Hope Training Center has been recognized by the media, the Women’s Business Association, members of Parliament, Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, and the queen of Buganda. In 2019, Olivia spoke about Peace and Hope at the Phenomenal Women’s Conference in Boston in the United States.
Since Olivia founded the Peace and Hope Training Center, it has helped tens of thousands of individuals “do more.” The many she has helped to train are now teaching and lifting others.