At a Glance

One Village was founded by Nicola Lovell after her first trip to Uganda in 2005. Within seven months of living and working there, Nikki had fallen in love with the rural village of Namwendwa. The village became her home and the people, her family.  When she returned home to Adelaide, South Australia to begin her Tertiary Education, Nikki realised that she could not live without, nor leave behind the people of Namwendwa. This realisation was cemented for Nikki when she received a phone call from Florence (a local school teacher and close friend) who told her that the local Nursery school had been destroyed by termites. Feeling compelled to help, Nikki spent a Semester, while still at University, attempting to raise funds for the erection of a new school building. During this time, she realised that supporting Namwendwa would become a large part of her life and that she was effecting real change in the lives of her friends in the village. Given the long-term, sustainable focus of her projects and vision (for example, the Scholarship Scheme), Nikki decided to register as an official charity to be able continue to support the work she had begun there. Subsequently, Just One Village Incorporated was formed and the current organisation structure instituted at the beginning of the 2007/2008 Financial Year.  While Nikki remains the President and key leading role within One Village today, she has many helpers and Directors to facilitate the growth of One Village.

The Story from the Beginning….

After completing her Secondary Education in 2004 at St. John’s Grammar School in South Australia, Nikki set off with Student Partnerships Worldwide to undertake 8 months working in a rural village in Uganda.  Working with fellow volunteers, Jane from England, and Loy and Joseph from Uganda, Nikki’s main role was teaching health education in Namwendwa Primary School and St Peter’s Secondary School. However, this presented many challenges and introduced Nikki to the struggles facing the people of Uganda.  Although English is the official language of Uganda, and all school exams are in English, English remains a second language to all students. Furthermore, successful teaching was inhibited by extremely large class sizes (more than 60 students in each classroom), little to no resources, lecture-based teaching (which hinders the emotional growth and exploration needed for children to learn) and significant gender imbalances within the enrolment figures.  Consequently, Nikki and Jane sought to address these
problems.

While living in Namwedwa, Nikki and Jane established a basic resource centre in Namwendwa Primary School and hand washing facilities in both schools.  After establishing a financial link with a pre-established organisation, “Maria’s Care”, the volunteers established ‘St Peter’s Academic Scholarship Scheme for Girls’.  This project originally selected eight girls on academic merit from Namwendwa Primary School and committed to funding their secondary education at St Peter’s because of the dramatic difference between male and female school attendance rates.  In addition to teaching in other schools in the area and forming a strong relationship with Florence (a Nursery school director in the region), Nikki also coordinated a HIV/AIDs Community Day, with Jo and Jane, which involved community members having access to HIV testing, counselling and support organisations (this program was later replicated in 2007 and 2009). The strength of the relationships that Nikki forged during her initial work in Uganda is illustrated by her relationship with Florence.  Nikki was so inspired by Florence, who had shown such initiative as a strong female role-model, that she gave her mobile phone to Florence before she left so that they could stay in touch.  After eight months living and working in Namwendwa, Nikki returned to Adelaide and commenced her double degree in Journalism and International Studies at the beginning of 2006.  During this time, the first eight Scholarship school girls commenced their studies at St. Peter’s and the Nursery school run by Florence was eaten by termites!  When Nikki received the distressed phone call from her dear friend, Florence, her heart went out to her friends in Uganda and she was propelled to undertake fundraising campaigns within Adelaide.  Nikki sought and gained the support of the Advertiser and local Messenger newspaper in order to source funds for the construction of a new Nursery School building.  However, campaigning for funds and raising awareness of the situation in Uganda quickly became all-consuming and Nikki deferred her university degrees. Nikki also established Just One Village Incorporated in order to ease the difficulties of gaining support for her charity projects.  In addition to working part time to fund her second trip to Uganda in 2007, Nikki established an Executive Board to provide assistance and guidance for her tasks and assume responsibility for the Branding aspect of One Village.  

In January 2007, Just One Village Incorporated was officially registered and launched as a charity in South Australia, a further eight girls gained school sponsorship (creating a total of 16 within the scheme) and Nikki returned to Uganda for a further six months.  During this time, Nikki worked with the teachers who had played a key role in operating the scholarship scheme in order to establish a Ugandan ‘One Village’ Executive Committee, write the Constitution and oversee the construction of the Nursery School. The team also successfully registered the Organisation at a District level within Uganda and opened a bank account in the name of ‘One Village’; in order to ensure transparent financial transactions. Nikki and the Ugandan Committee also coordinated another HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and a Disability Awareness Day within the community.  In order to ensure long term sustainability and empowerment, the Ugandan One Village Committee organised community and school meetings to discuss and identify the core needs of the community and their dreams of community development.  Budgets for these projects were also drawn up within this time frame.  
    
Nikki then returned to her life in Adelaide and commenced studying Law and a Diploma of Languages.  During 2008, Nikki was dedicated to increasing the profile of ‘One Village’ within Australia and raising funds to facilitate the growth of development projects undertaken by the Ugandan Committee in Namwendwa.  Nikki developed a good relationship with the media and successfully published a number of articles in The Advertiser and the City Messenger. Channel 9 approached Nikki to discuss the success of One Village and Stateline devoted an episode to Nikki’s story.  

Inspired by Nikki, Tim Agnew, Head of Humanities at Prince Alfred College used ‘One Village’ as a case study for his year 10, 11 and 12 geography classes.  This was so successful that Tim was asked to speak about the incorporation of ‘One Village’ into the school curriculum at the SA and National Geography Conferences and the Geography Teachers Association of South Australia published an article regarding the rewards for students studying such case studies.  With the assistance of Westminster and St John’s Grammar Schools, ‘One Village’ sponsored a further eight girls (so in 2008, a total of 24 girls in the scheme), raised over $20,000 and undeniably boosted the profile of ‘One Village’ within Australia.

The year 2009 has already been marked by considerable success.  We are continuing to build upon the network of schools, charities and clubs that support One Village. The ‘Bottles for Bricks’ project has arisen from a desire to pursue sustainable and environmentally friendly fundraising initiatives and continues to expand dramatically.  With a small team of One Village members returning from a summer trip to Namwendwa, there is much hope for many successful development programs in the future.

From the Smallest Seed Grows Change!