Some of our Success Stories
Francis Ssuna
Francis Ssuuna joined the Butterfly Project in 2009 and was a member of the Lyantonde Pioneer group, which recruited children both from villages outside Lyantonde and from the town itself.
Francis was spotted as someone who was prepared to step forward and engage with others, but when we spoke to him it became clear that even as a young boy he had a vision and was a powerful speaker.
In 2010, he came to Kampala after his Primary leaving exams and founded Project Circulate. He and other Butterfly member Samuel Lubangakene developed a route around the local slum area and we provided regular biscuits and drinks for children prepared to run around this circuit. They came in large numbers and Francis learnt how to be an athletics coach, as well as reading up and communicating issues of nutrition to the children that became part of his club.
In 2012, he realised that most of these children in the running club were coming for the fruit drinks and biscuits, as they worked for their food and clothing in the stone quarry and then determined to s
tart up a project to support these children out of this type of working. The Slum Run was started in 2012 and has evolved every year since then, gaining international renown for its innovative approach to social problems.
While this was developing, Francis had been piloting some other ideas, which were proving very fruitful. Vision 4 Change was a 4-day training programme for youth, which focused around developing firstly a vision for creating change in communities, then a will to implement it. He has now delivered this training programme in five districts of Uganda, but also in Rwanda, Tanzania and in Kenya, as part of an international trip he took in 2016 to encourage youth in East Africa to mobilise and deliver social change.
Eunice Namugerwa
Eunice has had a passion for helping children since we first met her in 2009. She brought with her a beautiful art portfolio and a vision for developing an orphanage for street children in the area she grew up in – Kisenyi, one of Kampala’s most notorious slum districts.
Eunice was very clever and had been promoted through the classes, despite a constant problem paying school fees, but we were able to find her a sponsor, which helped bring a stability in her education, which allowed her to flourish.
She was given a scholarship at Kampala Music School for her musical ability and has raced through the grades, learning the flute. She is also an excellent singer and dancer and she brought this into action by developing a project for children, which taught them music and dance. This project was featured in a magazine in Birmingham (UK), to inspire youth to follow her example about delivering social change.
Eunice moved her project forward entirely without support, rehearsing the children for performances she arranged for them but then she moved out of Kisenyi and started to think more broadly about how she could impact other youth and started to develop a programme for girls in empowerment. She took ideas to Tanzania in 2014 and helped with a children’s project there.
In 2015 she won a national award with Ambition Mission, which was for young people with a vision for Uganda, when she shared her desire for empowering girls in communities. Eunice wants to start up a platform for girls where they can share their challenges with others and are given advice on how to overcome them and to stand up for their rights.
In 2016, she started up the Chrysalis Music Family, a training project designed to give children a chance to learn how to since and dance and perform in professional situations. At the same time, she formed a dance group, know as God’s Blessed Dance Crew which has performed many professional engagements and featured on music videos.
Philip Deweyi
Philip is still just 19 but has packed a lot into his teenage years. He joined the project in 2009, when he was discovered as a prodigious footballing talent at Kampala Junior Team. We knew Philip had wide-ranging talents then and he did not disappoint.
He formed his own football team in Kyebando, which is now running independently and then a drama club at the local church.
In 2013 Chrysalis and three other organisations became Ashoka Youth Venture Champions and Philip was chosen out of 1000 young people from 12-22 to be the Chair of the Ashoka Youth Venture Alumni, youth who had delivered a project and could coordinate strategies for youth action in East Africa.
Most recently, Philip has developed ideas for improving the lives of subsistence farmers and developing coffee sales in Uganda. He still remains a committed footballer!
Gilbert Byamugisha
Gilbert joined the project in 2009, aged about 13 and has shown himself to be incredibly talented in the performing arts over the last 7-8 years.
His skills in choreography helped him develop projects amongst the kids in the Acholi Quarter in his early time on the project, where he created opportunities for them to perform at the highest level, developing some of their talents too.
More recently, Gilbert has become Vice Chair of the Ashoka Youth Venture Alumni, representing young changemakers throughout Uganda.
He has a specific interest in children’s talent development, but also in finding ways to prevent negative cultural practices, such as early marriage, born from a realisation that some of the girls that he had trained in dance were now married at 14 or 15 and one had died in childbirth.
He started a fruit juice business late last year, which was developing unique new flavours and this business is starting to flourish. He’s also been performing as a singer and dancer at functions and events in Kampala. His expertise in choreography continually keeps him busy and he recently partnered with Eunice Namugerwa, also a Butterfly, in forming a dance group, which performs in music videos.
Gilbert is also a chef and has been providing international food for functions around Kampala
Mansoor Miyingo
Mansoor is a quiet and sensitive individual, though never to be under-estimated. His academic performance and entrepreneurial ability to to make things happen are undeniable.
Mansoor joined the Butterfly Project when he was just 12. Even at a poor school he did incredibly well at his Primary Leaving Examination.
He has many gifts – an interest and affinity with animals, a problem-solving approach to difficulties and an empathy to others, Mansoor grew up in Lyantonde, one of the districts ravaged by HIV over the last 20-30 years.
His first project was to decide to grow eucalyptus trees to support the children in Rakai, where he has relatives, who were struggling to find school requirements and he sold his eucalyptus as firewood, to find money to support these children. Thieves stole his crop one evening and he could not continue this selfless project, but he still has an interest in seeing how farming can be utilised to solve social problems.
His circumstances changed and he moved to Nansana, a suburb of Kampala, and it was not long before he observed a new problem – drugs. Mansoor devised a programme of drama, known as the “Say No to Drugs” campaign and took this to every school in Nansana, even while he himself was at school. The campaign attracted hundreds of young people in the area and undoubtedly has raised awareness of the issues surrounding drugs.
Despite working on A levels, Mansoor moved onto the issue closest to his heart and founded an organisation – Active Youths Uganda, which has moved from strength to strength, looking at ways to encourage youth to take action to safeguard themselves against HIV, but also to tackle community issues too. This year Mansoor was privileged to be named as Runner Up in the Queens Award for Uganda – congratulations to him!
Samuel Lubangakene
Samuel is one of the Pioneer Butterflies, who is really very brilliant, with a compassion for others and organisational ability unmatched amongst our project members.
His first project was to highlight the lack of variety in school meals, when he worked on developing a calendar to go into schools, with art pieces he made using the staple school food of posho and beans.
Samuel is also an incredible artist and has produced many art pieces, which have been exhibited. His biggest love, however, has been computing and he has used the medium of videogames to work on an array of incredible projects and ideas. He calls it the “Chrysalis Mind Development Project” and its aim is to utilise existing and develop new videogames, to develop the cognitive and problem-solving abilities of children living in areas where there is little stimulation for them.
Samuel has also used boardgames this year and has started working with local church groups to encourage more of a culture of play and games in Uganda, where children love to play, yet are rarely given that opportunity.
While already 19, Samuel started school late and has just completed his O levels, at or near the top of the class every term. He is also a volunteer staff member at the Chrysalis Centre, where he advocates for the youth members and liaises with local people, as needed.