Our story begins with a chance conversation between Ida Horner founder of Ethnic Supplies and Ann McCarthy, a 67 year old grandmother who was already working on a project in South West Uganda

The villagers had already started some small scale projects on their own but had been forced to stop as they had run out of money and Ann had been helping them to find some money here and there so that they could realise their goal.

What the villagers wanted to achieve was to create a stop over point for tourists going to see mountain gorillas, so they too could benefit from the tourist dollar. The solution Ida came up with was to organise a fundraising dinner with theme of Let them Help Themselves Out of Poverty (LTHT).

The initiative brings stakeholders with varying degrees of experience and expertise on board to address complex issues affecting poor people in a holistic way. The big deal here is therefore to share expertise and skills to tackle financial independence through income generating activities such as basket weaving, jewellery making, carpentry etc but address other area such Education, Health, skills shortages or even issues like access to clean water