The Akola Project is a non-profit enterprise in Uganda, East Africa that trains, empowers, and equips over 200 women to uplift the lives of their families and communities through income generating crafts.   

UAPO trains Akola women in bead making, facilitates their business on the ground, and creates designs that sell in US and Ugandan markets.

Jewelry sales equip the women with monthly income to provide food, medical care, and education for their families. The women use additional income to create small buisnesses such as chicken coups and piggeries.

All sales revenues are returned to the project to form new women's cooperatives and establish development programs to benefit the community. Funds from Akola Project donations go towards developing vocational traning centers and clean water wells throughout Uganda.

• Over 170 women are enrolled in the Akola Project in four cooperatives in Eastern Uganda.
• Most women in the project are widows who who struggle daily to meet the basic needs of their families.
• Around 1/4 of the women and their families  in this area are HIV positive and need routine medical care.
• Akola women in Eastern Uganda use local materials to create fashionable Akola necklaces and leather bracelets that are sold in US and local Ugandan markets.

The Akola Project is in the midst of constructing a vocational traning center in Eastern Uganda that will expand Akola traning programs to include fabric dying, tailoring, and the loom.

The project has also drilled over eight clean water wells in the region and launched over seven different development programs including sustainable agriculture, health and sanitaiton campaings, and village savings and loans programs.

• 20 women are enrolled in one cooperative in the Pader district of Northern Uganda.
• Most women in this group are widowed by the war with the LRA and the AIDS crisis
• The women use their Akola income to move from the displaced camps and rebuild their homes and lives
• Akola women in Northern Uganda use local banana fiber to create baskets that they use to carry produce and sell in US markets

The Akola Project is in the midst of constructing a vocational traning center in Eastern Uganda that will expand Akola traning programs to include fabric dying, tailoring, and the loom.

The project has also drilled over eight clean water wells in the region and launched over seven different development programs including sustainable agriculture, health and sanitaiton campaings, and village savings and loans programs.

Akola Products are bought from women in Akola traning programs at fair trade prices that cover the basic needs of each woman's family including food, medical care, and school fees. After the women are paid for their respective crafts, the items are shipped to the US where they are sold. All revenue from Akola product sales is returned to the project to pay the women and facilitate community programs, water wells, and new vocational classes.

The Akola Project has generated over $250,000 of revenue from jewelry sales since its inception.