Mary came to Uganda from South Sudan in 2016. Once located in Pagirinya refugee settlement she heard about Seed Effect and decided to join a savings and loan group.

 She excelled in learning the training and the processes vital to helping a group become successful, and was asked to become a Village Volunteer for Seed Effect. She has formed six groups in addition to the one that she is a member of.

“I wanted to start [Seed Effect groups], because being in a group is really very good. You see these people they have a lot of thoughts, different thoughts when they came from South Sudan. They have fear, they are hungry, they have lost their relatives.

So when they are brought in the group they are able to forget all of those things. They are now happy, that is why they can sing! What happened in South Sudan they are able to think about in a different way, so being in a group is very good, really. Now they are truly healing, they learn from and read the scriptures, they talk about God.

They have learned the four key relationships: love God, love yourself, love your neighbors, love the environment where you are. This environment was really very bad, but now because of the way they look at it, it is very well.

I am here with them, we pray together. Everything we do is together.  We are here like family.”