Tomberg Family Philanthropies

(Please mention in the check for which cause you donate).

Funding Area: Poverty Alleviation

Give Us Wings was founded by a small group of people from Minnesota in 1999 after they learned of the thousands of families living in extreme poverty and struggling to survive in rural Uganda. These people had few resources, but dreamed of building better lives for themselves. Give Us Wings was born with a mission to help Ugandans improve their access to quality health care, education and economic opportunities. Our programs are community-based and responsive to the needs of our partners. We provide services and training to women’s business cooperatives as they endeavor to build successful businesses and increase their household incomes. Through our Family to Family program, we send children from vulnerable families to high-quality boarding schools where their needs are met in an atmosphere conducive to learning. And we constructed and support the operation of a clinic in the rural village of Kayoro, where no health facility existed previously. The clinic now serves over 20,000 patients each year with an emphasis on pre-natal care and birthing services.

Projects We Support

Equipment Support for Buyemba Farmers Co-op Society

This specific grant request is for funds for a project with the Buyemba Farmers Co-op Society (BFCS) in Uganda, a group we have been working with for the past year. This co-op was started in 2019 by farmers who wanted to increase their income capability by working together to bulk their produce and identify more profitable markets in which to sell it. One of BFCS’ crops is cassava, a large root vegetable. Soon after their formation, members of BFCS received training from the Ugandan government to create cassava flour which can be used for a variety of gluten-free baked goods. GUW has been working with them to identify outlets for selling these products, along with successful ways to invest the profits. We are now seeking funds to purchase cassava flour processing equipment for BFCS. Members currently produce the flour by hand: grating the flesh of the vegetable, pressing it to remove moisture, and then grinding it into flour. It is a laborious and time- consuming process. Further, it is done on the ground meaning it is very difficult to keep the flour clean and pure. GUW is hoping to purchase three machines to do each of the tasks listed above: grating, pressing, and grinding. In addition, we will buy two electric ovens so that the products do not have to be baked over an open fire. All of this equipment will ensure a higher quality product and enable BFCS to produce significantly more goods in less time. 

Support Dates: March, 2024 – March, 2025

KOMCOS Cooperative Groundnut Value Addition

Building on the success of the cassava project, GUW is now hoping to support another cooperative in the same sort of project. We have been working with the Kayoro Osukuru Multipurpose Cooperative Society (KOMCOS) for several years. (Kayoro is a small rural village in the district of Tororo.) Their efforts so far have been in general agriculture: growing various crops to sell at market, then investing some of the proceeds into seeds, land, and equipment to grow more crops. However, we know that value addition is the key to helping our partner co-ops really move to the next level. KOMCOS has been especially successful in growing groundnuts (what we call peanuts here in the U.S.) and they have come to us with a business plan to capitalize on that crop. GUW is seeking funding to help them launch this business. KOMCOS would add value by selling various products made with groundnuts, rather than just the nuts in their basic form. They have identified a demand for items such as shelled nuts, oil, paste (like peanut butter), and flour. Our staff in Uganda reports that the co-op would receive 2-3 times the income for the same amount of groundnuts once they are made into these products. We are seeking a grant to cover the cost of three electric motorized machines.

Support Dates: March, 2025 – Ongoing

Organization and Project Photos

Note: This information comes from Give Us Wings’ website and a brief description from their grant proposal.

The photos are © Copyright by Give Us Wings. All rights reserved.