Born from Grief, Built on Love
MAKEXAFRICA was born out of grief, love, and determination. In 2020, after losing his only sister Flavia at the age of 18 to childbirth complications—Simon Mugudde resolved that no other girl should walk that painful path. In every vulnerable girl, he saw Flavia, and in her memory, he established MAKEXAFRICA: an incorporated company limited by guarantee and committed to giving people in Busoga, especially adolescent youth and women a chance to live, thrive, and lead – in the midst of the gruesome realities of climate change.
Reaching the Forgotten Places
From the start, MAKEXAFRICA chose to work where the needs are greatest—slums, landing sites along Lake Victoria and the River Nile, and the forgotten edges of Jinja—places where adolescent girls and young women battle unplanned pregnancy, child marriage, HIV, violence, and crushing poverty. These struggles are now worsened by climate change, which erodes livelihoods and deepens vulnerability. After growing from a CBO to a company, we are now reaching more people in more places across Busoga region in Uganda.
Our Legal Mandate and Mission
We are legally registered and incorporated as a company limited by guarantee to provide climate-smart-public health and climate-oriented-micro-entrepreneurship solutions among adolescent girls and young women in Jinja–Uganda. Our guiding values—Equity, Accountability, and Community Service—shape every step of our work.
Tangible Impact in Communities
Our impact is tangible. By 2024 alone, MAKEXAFRICA reached over 20,000 community members with climate-smart-public-health awareness, empowered almost 2,000 young mothers with practical knowledge, information, and skills on nutrition, food security, and hygiene and sanitation. We have also equipped over 2,000 young women with climate-oriented-hands-on entrepreneurial training on soap and detergent making, sanitary towels from organic materials, briquettes from organic waste, and vegetable production using organic manure. With this, we have sparked tens of small businesses, especially boasting women incomes and thus freeing them from consequential financial dependence. To achieve this across communities, we work side by side with local councils, women leaders, health facilities, schools, and youth groups, ensuring that change is owned by the community across Busoga region in Eastern Uganda.
Beyond Handouts: Building Skills and Confidence
We do not give handouts—we give knowledge, skills, and confidence. Every public-health bootcamp, every climate awareness session, nutrition workshop, and climate-smart entrepreneurship session is a space where our communities are not passive recipients but active participants shaping their futures.
A Movement of Hope
MAKEXAFRICA’s history is not only about one founder’s promise to his late sister. It is the story of hundreds of girls rewriting their lives—from silence to voice, from vulnerability to resilience, and from despair to possibility.
In memory of Flavia, MAKEXAFRICA stands as a movement of hope for Uganda’s girls.