Boulder County Nonprofit Connects Colorado and Uganda

Since our inception, the Mwebaza Foundation has fundamentally been an educational organization. In 2007, Dale Peterson was teaching 1st grade at Niwot Elementary. He received the curriculum to teach a unit on the continent of Africa and realized that it contained only information about safari animals, nothing about the incredibly diverse histories, peoples, and cultures across the continent. He wanted his students to have a more accurate understanding of the continent so he signed up through People to People international, and was partnered with mrs. Namatovu from Mwebaza Infant school in Uganda. Through that relationship, the Mwebaza Foundation was formed with a mission to offer cross-cultural exchange opportunities that broaden the worldview of youngest generation.

Our vision is that all students will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to be global citizens, who are inspired to build a sustainable and just future.

To us, being global citizens means developing the skills to think critically and build a critical consciousness that is rooted in a strong sense of understanding oneself and the world in which we live. Through this understanding, students are better positioned to be change makers in their own communities by taking action on issues they care deeply about. We do this through a variety of lessons and customized curriculums that focus on global issues like equity, identity, diversity, and justice as well as environmental issues like resource access and climate change. 

While we are fundamentally an educational organization, we recognize that we have a unique position in the international development non-profit world. And since we work with our partners in Uganda, it is our responsibility and mission to do that in a sustainable and just way. We believe it is critically important to understand the harmful history and legacy of colonialism that traditional nonprofit structures can perpetuate.

Through the non profit industrial complex, we see how nonprofits can uphold unequal power dynamics that posits people as either givers or receivers. We believe this mentality can support the “White Savior” complex that we must confront.

Therefore, the Mwebaza Foundation rejects the concept of charity, rather build equitable partnerships where we work in solidarity to collaborate and co-create new systems that build power and agency among all our partners to create the change they envision. 

Colorado partner school student creates an identity portrait of what she connects with inside and out. These pen pal projects were sent to Uganda and exchanged for Ugandan students’ identity portraits.