Our colleague Marijke D’Herde shows through her non-profit organization Akiiki how a holiday can bring not only rest, but also connection, meaning, and transformation. This summer, she invites you to literally and figuratively help build a warmer world in northeastern Uganda, and is also seeking much-needed financial support.
Imagine a journey without an all-inclusive buffet, but with an abundance of authenticity. No tourist itinerary, but a daily alignment with your own energy. In Awoimujo, a village in Karamoja, you build not only huts but also bridges—between worlds, between people, and between head and heart.
You return with more than just photos. You carry an experience that stays with you: friendships, wonder, silence, and a new way of looking. At yourself. At the world.
In Awoimujo, Karamoja (NE Uganda), a place is growing that brings people together, literally and figuratively. And you can help build it with your hands, your heart, or your donation.
Holiday 2.0: build yourself and a home in Awoimujo
You help build the Akiiki Center of Reconnection, a meeting place where participants from both Belgium and Uganda attend intensive circles, training sessions, and retreats. Not tourism or traditional development cooperation, but sustainable change rooted in connection.
Every morning starts in a connecting circle. During the day, you work alongside Karamojong women: mixing mud, building huts, and sharing stories. You follow, listen, learn, and live at a different pace. And you return with something that isn’t a souvenir, but an inner compass.
“I came to contribute something. But what I received was at least as much: simplicity, connection, and a different perspective on what truly matters.”
Stef Jossart, 2025 building camp participant
What we are building in Awoimujo
Together with the local community, we are building a center that empowers people. What your support makes possible:
- A shelter for circles and training sessions during rain
- Fencing for security
- Huts for accommodation during retreats or training courses
- Electricity for the center, two villages, and a school
- An access road so that everyone can reach the center
Next building trip: July 9 – August 27, 2025
More info: www.akiiki.org
Interested? Email info@akiiki.org
Do you dare to see holidays differently?
Come help build a place, a community, and yourself.
Your contribution makes a difference
Whether you help build, buy a basket, support a Turtle, or make a donation, your support becomes tangible and visible in Uganda. Everything that comes in flows back into strengthening awareness in the villages.
Would you like to help?
- Donate without a tax certificate
➡️ Scan the Payconiq QR or transfer to:Akiiki vzw
IBAN: BE58 0018 4929 3579
BIC: GEBABEBB
Reference: Donation
- Donate with a tax certificate (from €40/year)
➡️ Via partner organization SOL vzw:
IBAN: BE11 7350 1646 6948
BIC: KREDBEBB
Reference: Your name + address + national registration number + project 541
Need help? Feel free to email marijke@akiiki.org; we are happy to assist you.
For €2,800, you can adopt an entire hut. But every donation, large or small, makes a difference.
More ways to support
- Buy a basket from Rubona: hand-woven by women in Uganda. Ideal as a meaningful gift. We are also looking for partners who would like to sell them. (Catalogue on request)
- Provide training opportunities: With €10, you give someone access to a circle, giraffe day, or hippo session.
- Circle Toolkit (€200): Help hippos and turtles facilitate circles themselves with visual tools and methods.
- Make transformation possible: For €50 per day + €1,000, you can make a trip to Akiiki possible for yourself or someone else: not tourism, but a supported experience in connection.
Become a pillar of support: support a Turtle
Turtles are local bridge builders: women and men who, after their training, facilitate circles themselves, listening, connecting, and healing within their community.
For €85 per month, you support a Turtle in his or her mission.
“Akiiki is my family. Thanks to the training, I have started circles myself in Entebbe. People come to listen, sing, share, and heal.”
Ben Ochieng, Turtle
