The Spinoza Foundation

(1) During this fiscal period the Executive Director (serves on a volunteer basis) of The Spinoza Foundation spent three months in Uganda overseeing the monitoring of the organization's programs in Uganda. This included visiting homes of 15 children and youth living with HIV who had received a goat from The Spinoza Foundation in the past (program beneficiaries). The goal of this visit was to understand the progress made by these families which have received a female goat from The Spinoza Foundation for goat farming in the last three years. We learnt that their goats had increased from one to an average of eight goats in the three year period. Such findings continued to encourage us as an organization and would be used in the future to demonstrate our impact to donors and supporters. Such visits also served as an opportunity for us to learn about existing needs in the communities in order for us to create further programming in the form of potentially more livestock or kinds of livestock such as cows poultry. In addition to visiting the homes of these homes the Executive Director checked in on the academic progress of the three children and youth we have supported with scholarships and bursaries towards their education. (2) Partnership building with stakeholders and collaborators in Uganda: The Spinoza Foundation through its Executive Director continued to organize and hold consultative meetings with collaborators such as government officials healthcare workers and community para-social support workers all in Uganda. Such discussions are key the continued success of the Uganda Goat Livelihood program as we rely on such partners to identify beneficiaries (children and youth living with HIV) and monitoring of the beneficiaries and goats during the routine home visits the healthcare workers conduct to check on the children and youth living with HIV. Additionally the government officials protect the livestock received through ensuring its safety.