James Kassaga Arinaitwe

At a young age, Arinaitwe lost his parents and four siblings to infectious diseases, which included HIV/AIDS in rural western Uganda. As an “AIDS orphan” (a phrase which he uses critically), he experienced the often-problematic international development system first hand.  In his essay, he wrote, “I encountered a republic of NGOs claiming their legitimacy in …

Meet the Fellow

Open the Doors of Education for Africa’s Disabled Students

isabled Africans cheered a new hero last month when South Africa’s wheelchair tennis powerhouse Lucas Sithole defeated world No. 1 quadriplegic tennis player David Wagner of the United States at a Johannesburg tournament — demonstrating that in Africa, as elsewhere, physical disability is no bar to world greatness. But the sad truth for many disabled young Africans …

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How US evangelicals are shaping development in Uganda

US EVANGELICAL GROUPS ARE INCREASINGLY SHAPING UGANDA’S DEVELOPMENT POLICIES TO SUIT THEIR RELGIOUS AGENDA. There has been widespread criticism of the role that US evangelical groups had in influencing Uganda’s recent draconian anti-gay legislation, But what is less known is how foreign faith-based, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are shaping many aspects of my country’s development to …

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How Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law Hurts Women

In 2008 a colleague and l were in Uganda’s capital Kampala to attend an awareness session on domestic violence in minority communities. The organizers, a lesbian group, were partly funded by our organization, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), which is a pan-African grant making foundation based in my home country, Ghana. After a few …

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