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From Insights to Action: How a $1,000 Pollination Project Seed Grant is Propelling My Professional Fellows Program Follow-on Project

Published: Jan 06, 2025

Country: Uganda

Josephine Namirimu is a Spring 2024 alumna in the Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Civic Engagement. This program is sponsored by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is administered by the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts Boston in partnership with Humanity and Inclusion (HI). The following blog post was written by guest author Josephine.

I am Josephine Namirimu, a middle-aged Ugandan woman with a disability and a wheelchair user (Figure 1). As a human rights scholar and advocate for disability justice, I am honored to be an alumna of the Spring 2024 cohort of the Professional Fellows Program (PFP) on Inclusive Civic Engagement. My experience in this program was transformative, connecting me with resources, mentors, and a global network. In this blog, I share how this incredible fellowship led to securing a $1,000 seed grant from the Pollination Project Fund, enabling me to enhance the impact and implementation of my follow-on project.

A Ugandan woman with braided hair, sitting at a white cloth-covered table in an outdoor setting, smiling.
Figure 1. Josephine at an event hosted by the US Embassy Kampala, Uganda

My follow-on project, “Empowering Youth Self-Advocates with Disabilities (YSAwDs): A Boot Camp for Inclusive Civic Participation in Uganda,” was a central focus of my fellowship experience in the United States. Much of my professional engagement involved reshaping this project, thanks to my mentor, Mr. Colin Killick, former Executive Director, and his colleagues at my host site, the Disability Policy Consortium in Boston, Massachusetts. I also benefited from the guidance of other professionals who generously dedicated their time, expertise, and energy to support me in refining this initiative.

The PFP fellowship featured an intensive yet well-rounded schedule, seamlessly integrating sessions on a wide range of topics, including disability politics in the US, disability rights and disability justice in the transnational context, the evolution of disability politics in the US, the rise of disability activism in the Global South, transnational disability movements, and Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). The ABCD approach focuses on leveraging communities’ own strengths and resources to drive positive change. These sessions were delivered by carefully selected experts from various fields, including research, law, advocacy, fundraising, project management and others. This provided me with an invaluable opportunity to tap into a rich pool of resources for networking and collaboration, both for my follow-on project and beyond.

Formal sessions were complemented by community experiences, such as visiting the battlefield in Lexington, Massachusetts; participating in the Boston Pride parade; viewing the Embrace statue commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta King, on Boston Common; attending a disability fundraiser organized by Easterseals Massachusetts, taking a boat cruise to Ellis Island, visiting the Statue of Liberty, and watching a play about the history of the American women’s suffrage movement on New York City’s Broadway. Each landmark and experience served as a powerful symbol of American history.

It was during the Easterseals fundraiser that I met Lorelei Randa, Director of Corporate Partnerships at Easterseals Massachusetts, and Racheal Inegbedion, a disability and women’s rights advocate and a doctoral candidate in the School for Global Inclusion and Social Development at UMass Boston. They were among the many professionals I had the opportunity to interact with during the fellowship. Both spoke to me about the critical role of fundraising in supporting advocacy work. Racheal, in particular, emphasized that shifting my approach from school-based initiatives to a community-based residential camp would make my project more practical and sustainable. This idea immediately resonated with me, as it had initially been my "Plan B" for this project.

The new idea of a community-based residential camp was exciting, but it also came with challenges, especially the need for financial resources to sustain the youth participants, including costs for reasonable accommodations and food. However, Racheal helped allay my concerns by sharing possible funding sources that fit within my project’s focus and timeline. These included the Pollination Project Fund and Awesome Foundation, among others, which seemed well suited for my project.

I applied for the Pollination Project Fund, seeking technical advice from PFP program staff  who reviewed my draft proposals and provided timely support. The proposal process was particularly helpful in improving my skills in proposal writing. As a result, the Pollination Project Grant Team responded positively, and my proposal made it to the second round of their rigorous review process. In December 2024, the grant was approved, marking the start of my partnership journey with the Pollination Project Fund. The experience has been truly fulfilling.

Combining all the knowledge and skills gained from the fellowship, and incorporating the ABCD approach, I have secured partnerships with organizations such the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalous Association of Uganda, the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NUDIPU), and other independent advocates. With the $1000 seed grant from the Pollination Project Fund and a strong network of partners, we are on track to launch the first cohort of 20 youth participants in January 2025.

My final word of encouragement to all alumni and aspiring fellows is to take your follow-on projects seriously and use them as an opportunity to apply all the knowledge and connections gained from the fellowship. Let’s practice the ABCD approach, hone our fundraising skills, and aim to be intentional in passing on our knowledge to peers who wish to attend the same fellowship but are unable to.

I close by expressing my sincere appreciation to the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the US Embassy in Kampala, the Pollination Project Fund, the UMass Boston’s Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) and its partner, Humanity and Inclusion as well as my local partners, including the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Uganda, NUDIPU, Cheshire Services Uganda, and many more.