Amigos celebrates 25 years of transforming lives in Uganda

A charity that began as a greetings card appeal to help Ugandan orphans and has since transformed more than 200,000 lives is marking its 25th anniversary this year.

Barnstaple-based Amigos Worldwide was formed from scratch but today runs the Kira Farm vocational training centre in Uganda, sponsors children and families to help lift them from poverty and has brought freshwater boreholes and hope to numerous remote rural communities in some of the poorest regions of Uganda.

The Amigos ethos of inspiring and enabling people and especially young people to help themselves and their communities has led to a raft of sustainable farming and conservation projects, new businesses and infrastructure across the African country, but especially the poverty-stricken and war-torn north.

Above: Graduation day for trainees at Kira Farm in 2024. Credit: Amigos

While the Barnstaple office promotes the charity and raises money, it is run on the ground in Uganda by Ugandan people.

It all began when founder Phil Pugsley visited neighbouring Tanzania in 1998 with two friends and he was shocked at what he saw.

Phil said: “I had a wakeup call. It was northern Tanzania and I had never been anywhere quite like it and to see such poverty up close was an eye-opener. There were three of us initially hence the Amigos name, relating to the film The Three Amigos. We wanted to do something about it, but it never quite happened.”

Then in the year 2000 Phil’s wife Ann visited Tanzania, but her group also passed through Uganda, where they discovered the situation was even worse.

Phil continued: “They saw an orphanage in Kampala which was pretty grim. At that time, thousands of parents were dying of HIV AIDS across Africa, leaving millions of children being cared for by grandparents and siblings in the best way they could. It was all very real to us as Ann’s cousin was a midwife in Zimbabwe and had contracted HIV AIDS as she delivered babies.

“We started supporting this orphanage and thought if we could raise £25 a month we could at least help feed them.”

Above: Phil Pugsley in northern Uganda. Credit: Amigos

Not only did the pandemic leave Uganda the ‘youngest nation on earth’ with an average age of 15, it also left a huge skills gap with so much of the working population lost.

The seed planted by Ann’s visit to the orphanage grew one morning when Phil was walking to work at his job at the then Top Town Printers in Barnstaple.

He said: “I know this is a little left field, but I was walking to work at 5.30 one morning and praying: ‘how can we practically help some of these orphans?’

“I just felt God say to me, ‘do what you are good at and I will take care of the rest and this will grow as big as you let it’.

“I thought what was I good at and landed on printing. I thought if I started printing and selling greetings cards, I could raise some money to help these kids.”

Phil approached his boss at Top Town Printers to ask permission to use their machines out of hours and then print supply companies for resources. All generously donated huge volumes of card and envelopes to produce a high quality product.

One of Phil’s work colleagues was a keen photographer and suggested sourcing suitable pictures from local camera clubs.

Beyond all expectations and simply selling cards through friends, neighbours, relations, churches and a team of volunteers, the appeal raised £80,000 and Amigos was born.

Above: Amigos runs a scheme to sponsor Ugandan children and provide uniforms and school supplies so they can gain an education. Credit: Amigos

Initially the charity supported Makindye Pearls orphanage on the outskirts of Kampala, but an encounter with a wise African aid worker, Joseph Kamera, in Uganda showed Phil much more could be done.

Phil said: “He said something really significant to me – ‘don’t put money into bricks and mortar to confine children (in orphanages), put money into bricks and mortar that frees children’.”

So in 2005 Amigos began sponsoring individual children to help them attend school. The charity also bought 22 acres north of Kampala that would become the Kira Farm Development Centre.

Above: Some of the Child Sponsorship recipients pictured with Joseph Sabiiti who was the charity’s programme lead until his retirement. Credit: Amigos

The first 15 trainees arrived at the farm in 2008 and it was officially opened by singing star Joss Stone in 2009.

Above: Trainees preparing to graduate from Kira Farm. Credit: Amigos

Kira Farm also served to open the eyes to the huge problems facing Uganda – following the downfall of Idi Amin, a new government seized power but faced constant fighting from rebels known as the LRA in the north of the country.

Phil explained how the rebels would raid villages, often killing the parents and abduct young people, to brainwash them and turn them into child soldiers for their cause.

As a result, young people who came to Kira Farm were very often traumatised from war, the terrible things they had seen and the abuse they had suffered.

Phil said: “I recall there was one girl called Prisca who was made to carry three AK47 rifles by the rebels at nine-years-old.

“The Ugandan government set up Internally Displaced People Camps to try and protect the northern rural communities. The problem was more people died in IDP camps from the atrocious conditions than at the hands of the rebels.

“Uganda is split by the Nile and you have a completely different people group in the north compared with the south. Now it’s picking up, but it was a desperate situation when we were first there.

“The ethos of Kira Farm is ‘development from inside out’. We put as much emphasis on healing our trainees’ hearts as training hands.

“We realised these kids were really messed up, so we started working on that with a Christian programme to help them heal. We see poverty very much as not just physical but spiritual.”

Above: Kira Farm tailoring trainees with some of the items they have created to be sold in the UK to raise funds. Credit: Amigos

Kira Farm takes in 50 young trainees a year for a 12 month course, offering healing if they need it but also teaching farming methods, plus trainees can choose a range of skills to learn such as tailoring, hairdressing, carpentry, construction, beekeeping and electrical wiring; they also learn business skills to help them to start their own business.

Above: Beekeeping is among the skills Amigos teaches at Kira Farm and takes out to the wider rural communities. Credit: Amigos

Uganda is a nation of subsistence farmers, particularly in the north and in the last decade Amigos has also focussed on sustainable community development and conservation farming, to equip entire communities with the skills, resources and infrastructure to benefit everyone.

Part of this is the ongoing freshwater boreholes project, which fundraises in North Devon and beyond to install boreholes in remote villages to guarantee them a supply of fresh clean water.

As well as helping to prevent disease from polluted water sources, it also means the women and children do not have to walk miles daily to fetch water – which means the adults can devote more time to work to earn money for the family and the children can go to school.

Other initiatives under the community programme include solar panel projects and beekeeping training, as well as teaching more modern farming methods.

Above: Sustainable conservation farming techniques taught by Amigos have helped Ugandan farmers in poor rural communities to at least double their crop yields. Credit: Amigos

To mark its 25th anniversary, Amigos is hosting a supporters’ trip to Uganda in May for those who have donated, sponsored children or families and Kira Farm trainees, so they can see the good work and results of their generosity.

A celebration event of some kind will also be held back in the UK in the autumn of this year.

The charity has also just welcomed a new chief executive, James Lewis, who Phil says will do a great job building on Amigos’ values and ethos.

Above: Phil Pugsley shares a moment of laughter with a Ugandan villager. Credit: Amigos

Reflecting on the charity’s first quarter century, Phil said: “To start off, we never imagined it would grow to the size it has.

“After setting up child sponsorship we discovered there was even a greater need for secondary school aged young people to gain vocational skills, which gave birth to Kira Farm Development Centre.

“We then realised conservation farming skills were needed throughout Uganda, which led to setting up our Community Development Programme.

“We have been determined from the outset that all our programmes are run by Ugandans. The UK side of things is focused on fundraising and being a conduit for the generosity of our valued supporters.

“There is a saying: ‘Only a spider can repair its own web’ and it’s working.

“Young people from Kira Farm go back home and make a real difference in their rural communities, building businesses and employment. Farming communities are at least doubling their crop yields due to simple conservation farming techniques.” 

You can find out more about Amigos Worldwide, how to donate or get involved, at www.amigos.org.uk.