This Atiak Sugar Project has been a labor of passion for me, ever since a group of women from Northern Uganda told me their stories of struggle and invited me to visit the region and work with them as a development partner. No human can wit- ness their plight, the devastation wrought by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and not feel compelled to act. My mother was a successful businesswoman in Kenya and taught me that a business is only valuable in so far as it helps develop and grow a nation. This wisdom is at the heart of the Atiak Sugar Project.

Northern Uganda suffered immensely from conflict, and underdevelopment in the region is severe. When we began the project, there was very little infrastructure, including roads, water, and electricity. Employment was limited, and the situation for women was, and continues to be, particularly dire. Women returning from the bush, after suffering years of captivity and abuse by the LRA, have been rejected by their own families and cannot access land and livelihoods. With children to feed and no home, they are extremely vulnerable. I firmly believe that to develop Northern Uganda, we must empower women, because a wealthy woman is a wealthy society, and a wealthy society is a wealthy nation.

We have built the Atiak sugar factory in Northern Uganda as an engine for devel- opment to support the livelihoods of vulnerable populations, particularly women. Communities own the land and harvest the sugarcane. We, in turn, provide seeds, oversee planting, process the sugarcane, and purchase it from the farmers. The factory will support 14,000 farmers and factory workers once at full capacity.

As the Ugandan Government has highlighted, the Atiak Sugar Project has the potential to transform Northern Uganda, and we have big plans for expansion and growth in the near future. We believe we can make an important difference to people’s lives, and we invite you to join us on this journey.