June 6, 2023 – For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, WPDI founder and CEO, Forest Whitaker, joined a WPDI mission to Uganda to visit programs and interact directly with beneficiaries, stakeholders and WPDI staff. Forest was joined by representatives of some of our important partners, including Teresa Vieglins, Deputy Secretary General of the Swedish Postcode Foundation, Laura Chow, Head of Charities at the People’s Postcode Lottery (UK) and George Land, Senior Vice President of NBA Africa.
Uganda has always occupied a special place in Forest’s heart and WPDI’s story, as it was during the filming of The Last King of Scotland in Uganda back in 2006 that Forest had his first exchanges with former child soldiers and war orphans. This experience would lead him to launch WPDI as a peacebuilding initiative focused on the structural development of peace through education, the empowerment of young people and women and positive cultural transformation. In an area overcome by violence and conflict, sowing the seeds of peace was vital for the future.
Returning to the country on a WPDI mission is therefore always a celebrated event, especially amongst the local communities whose lives have been transformed by Forest’s humanitarian initiatives run by WPDI. His return was celebrated at each location that was visited, with dancing, music and community events.
From right to left: Teresa Vieglins, Deputy Secretary General of the Swedish Postcode Lottery, Laura Chow, Head of Charities at the People’s Postcode Lottery (UK), George Land, Senior Vice President of NBA Africa, Forest Whitaker.
Forest and our team first visited the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement to inaugurate our brand new IT Lab (a program launched in 2022 in partnership with the Western Union Foundation and MIT ReACT), which extended our Community Learning Center with a computer room where trainees can access our e-platform on which we offer Business, ICT and Conflict Resolution courses.
Forest inaugurated the children’s playground that we installed last year to offer refugee children a safe space for entertaining themselves while their mothers are taking courses at the CLC. He also exchanged with local Youth Peacemakers who have been trained through WPDI programs to become agents to peace and positive development in their communities.
The Whitaker Peace Tournament was then launched, a soccer tournament in the framework of our Peace Through Sports initiative that aims to foster a peaceful coexistence in marginalized communities through sporting activities. This initiative is notably supported by the Swedish Postcode Foundation, whose Deputy Secretary General, Teresa Vieglins, joined us to kick the first ball!
Forest and WPDI then visited Hope North, a special school for former child soldiers and orphans, founded by Sam Okello, one of the first former child soldiers that Forest met in 2006. This school is of particular significance to WPDI and Forest, since this is where we started working in Uganda, piloting a training and empowerment model that would later grow into the Youth Peacemaker Network as we know it today.
During the next phase of the mission, the team traveled to the Acholi Sub-Region where WPDI has been operating peacebuilding programs since 2016. Forest and the group notably visited our Community Learning Center in Gulu city, where WPDI runs various different activities focused on peacebuilding and sustainable development. These include Business training, Arts & Crafts and various children’s activities. It was also a wonderful moment to exchange with our Youth Peacemakers, who continue to inspire positive change in their communities!
A graduation ceremony for local teachers was also held, and two local women’s business projects were visited. Both highlighted who WPDI programs enabled them to launch their businesses and create livelihoods for themselves, their families and their communities.
For the final phase of the mission, the team traveled to the Karamoja Sub-Region, one of the poorest and most violent areas of Uganda, where we launched our programs in the midst of the pandemic. This was therefore the first time that Forest has visited the program, giving him the opportunity to meet the staff and our most recent generation of Youth Peacemakers. Through his exchanges with them as well as other stakeholders, he could take stock of how this new program had rapidly achieved strong results. This was proof, he noted, of the resilience capacity of our model and also of the local populations who had embraced the presence of WPDI as an opportunity to create better lives for themselves. As the first visit of Forest to Uganda since the COVID pandemic, this mission has proved highly fruitful since it allowed him to assess situations with local stakeholders and to brainstorm with his teams on how to improve our service to the community.
WPDI’s CEO was able to attend a special graduation ceremony at our Community Learning Center for 161 trainees in ICT, Business, Arts & Crafts and Conflict Resolution. He was also able to meet a group of 20 Community Leaders and 7 former warriors who previously participated in a WPDI Conflict Resolution Education course.
At the end of the trip, Forest held important meetings with several UN representatives, including Susan Namondo, UN Resident Coordinator, as well as UNESCO, UN Women and UNFPA coordinators for Uganda, and representatives of the Islamic Development Bank, one of our main sponsors for initiatives in the Karamoja Sub-Region. The mission was all the more meaningful as it was accompanied by representatives of our partners the People’s Postcode Lottery, the Swedish Postcode Lottery and NBA Africa, who were able to directly witness the impact their cooperation with WPDI has had on the ground.