Loving Hearts Foundation for Africa USA

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

We fund our partner NGO in Uganda to provide primary education for children in Zirobwe Community, as well as providing programs for village members to overcome severe poverty. Our farming project grows crops for the school children's two meals a day while at school, and teaches village members self-sustaining agriculture techniques by incorporating other food crops, to both supplement their own food supply, and eventually sell for income. The church project provides teaching and spiritual care for the village, and enhances healthy relationships, utilizing the newly built school structure. We encourage community involvement in the operation of the school, farm, and church.

How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Community meetings/Town halls,

How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,

What significant change resulted from feedback?

The five acre farm was previously used solely for growing crops to feed the children at school, and extra was given to village members who were unable to obtain food due to the prolong Covid 19 pandemic lockdown in Uganda. Meetings and in-person informal interviews were held, voicing a need to learn skills for self-sufficiency. The Uganda team added an agriculturist, who is now diversifying crops on the farm, incorporating fast, medium, and long growth crops for a food continuous food supply. She is empowering village members to improve their livelihoods by teaching them various growing techniques, even crops in small spaces of containers, which teach the children as well. The future crop to sell in open market will be primarily coffee, in addition to various fruits.

With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

The people we serve, Our board, Our funders,

How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?

The village people have become more involved with the operation of the school--parents fetch water from the new well our organization had drilled, parents are committed to cook for the school meals, others gather firewood for the stoves, men have dug deep holes on the farm for the planting of tree suckers, while other weed and hoe the ground. Knowing these investments are for their community's future has changed their mind sets, and has made the partner relationship stronger. This economic empowerment has seemed to inspire others in the area to get involved as well.

Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive,

What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time,