Humphrey Nabimanya is Making Uncomfortable Conversations Comfortable – One Exciting Youth-Led Campaign at a Time

Forces of Change

HUMPREY NABIMANYA, a globally celebrated social entrepreneur, philanthropist, peer educator, founder and Chief Executive Officer at Reach A Hand Uganda is akin to a superhero. At 33 years old, through Reach A Hand Uganda, he has directly touched lives of over 50,000 young people and millions more passively. From sexual reproductive health and rights, HIV/ AIDS awareness and prevention, to youth empowerment through peer learning sessions and more, Nabimanya has managed to bring many conversations deemed ‘uncomfortable to have’ to the fore. In this chat, he tells Satisfashion UG why it’s only just the beginning.

Nabimanya’s passion for the work he does comes from a place so deep; a childhood littered with trials, trauma and tragedy. “I come from a village called Kataleza, it’s in Rwampara district,” he recounts. “I can’t even describe the trauma and tragedy that hovered over our homes, starting with my own, thanks to HIV. I moved to Kampala with my sisters but still more challenges followed us. Because she was HIV positive, there was a lot of stigma around it.”

Back in Kataleza, rates of teenage pregnancy were soaring by the day. When he joined secondary school, he realised that many young people were oblivious to these challenges albeit being sexually active. “It was evident that many young people had little access to information they needed to make right choices,” he recalls. This fired passion through him at a young age to find solutions to these challenges. At 13, he started out as a peer educator and has been at it till today.

“I’m really passionate about empowering young people to understand the environment they live in, understand their sexuality, who they are, so that they can spark change within themselves. We believe that “The World Starts With Me“, so everything starts with you to foster change in other people,” he says. Starting with himself, Nabimanya joined TV in 2007, a medium he believed he would use to foster the change he desired. “It was a question of how I’d use the platform to address the many issues affecting young people leveraging the actors, musicians and other personalities the TV show interacted with.” He later founded Reach a Hand Uganda in 2011.

The fire he had within him as a teenger has never waned, begging the question – How? “This, to me, is like a calling,” he says. “I didn’t create a job that I’d do to earn a living. It’s a calling, just like what pastors tell us. It’s that calling that keeps me going through each challenge that comes my way.”

“Also, along the journey, there are so many lessons to learn,” he continues. “That’s an interesting chapter to revel in. For example, I started as just Humphrey, running a ‘one man show’. The team later grew to about 3 to 4 volunteers, but right now we have about 3000+ young people who are volunteering with us. We have donors and partners, who have trusted us to work with them, so it has grown over time. It is the passion and believing in my calling that has, and continues to keep me going.”

Talking about challenges, a juggernaut of all challenges called the Covid-19 pandemic befell us last year, and has stalled almost everything. Nabimanya’s work wasn’t spared. Describing the experience he says, “we have been taken back five years or more. Truly young people have been actively affected by the pandemic, but with it came a bigger pandemic called ‘gender/ sexual-based violence.” Regardless of the juggernaut in the way, he and his team haven’t budged.

“We were lucky to have tapped into new media as a medium of communication before the pandemic. TV series such as ‘Kyaddala’ are providing information in the form of entertainment to young people wherever they are. We have also trained over 789 educators across the country. These are able to move to places we cannot reach. Apart from us observing SOPs, we are also putting Covid-19 awareness programs into ours,” he explains.

“We have also created different toll free lines young people can call when in need of, say; family planning information and services, if they are affected by gender based violence or things like rape and other forms of sexual violence. Furthermore, we have designed different youth empowerment programmes young people can enroll into to keep busy. It’s actually a handful, but we are lucky to be doing something at the very least.”

It looks like parents have relegated many of their roles to people to Nabimanya, which is exacerbating the situation. “Parents should come in because children have been out of school for a while now. They should teach them how to protect themselves. Talk to them about sex because they will figure it anyway, it’s better that they get the right information from their parents,” he advises.

“Yes, times are hard, but don’t allow a bodaboda man to prey on your child because of a sanitary towel she needs. Most of the young girls getting pregnant are doing so at the hands of avoidable needs children have that their parents have been adamant to cater to.”

Pairing Humphrey Nabimanya with Sandra Nansambu was deliberate. Reach a Hand Uganda is actively championing for rights of differently-abled young people. This is another thing he is passionate about. “We would like to create a community where all young people are able to compete fairly. I’m talking about including all of them, regardless of their abilities, in the work we do. These are the solutions we need now, and Sandra is such an incredible force. I can’t wait to see how we can work with her.”

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What is your definition of change?

Change, to me, is being able to see that there’s impact that is created amongst people, communities and individuals. This comes down to change in lifestyle, behaviour, environment, friends they are exposed to, as well as their character. That’s the change I desire to see.

Your mission is to support young people to take control of their lives and present themselves in ways that inspire, impress and spur confidence in themselves. Do you think you have been able to achieve this so far?

I’m still heading there. You see, Uganda is big, Africa is bigger, and I can only contribute what I’m able to contribute. However, out of 100% of the young people we are serving, there is at least 1% that I’ve seen achieve it, and to me, that small satisfaction is enough. The road we are on is a moving train, and there is a lot that is still being done. On that moving train we have had people who have succeeded in their life, started their own businesses and NGOs that are up and running. We have cultural icons, who are musicians, inspired by Reach A Hand Uganda to start their own initiatives. I meet young people I worked with in 2011, and they are like, “Humphrey you changed my life,” and for me, that statement is always enough to show that we are creating an impact in people’s lives.

A lot of young people feel limited, whether it’s by resources or their education levels. But, among them could be potential change makers. What would you tell people like that?

Limitations should never stand in your way. You can start. I started with just 40,000 shillings – actually with nothing. But I had that zeal to start. I didn’t go to the company registrar to register my organisation. That came in later. I realised that there was change that needed to happen, and I did something about it. I had neither the resources nor the right expertise, but I I still went ahead to do it. So, to anyone out there, as long as you have the idea, go out and pursue it. There’s no limitation to that.

How, then, would you describe success?

My success is bringing our vision, as an organisation, to life. In terms of serving young people, we have tried our best. Covid-19 has taken us back 5 or more years. But we’ve tried our best to do what we do. I wouldn’t say I’m at the point where I’m satisfied with where we are, it’s just the beginning. 10 years of growth of Reach a Hand Uganda, is only just the beginning. We want to build hospitals in rural communities, we are now doing mental health programmes. Our vision is still quite big.

Lastly, Covid-19 has affected us in different ways. How have you kept yourself sane through it all?

We have to care for one another. The first people I looked out for were my colleagues at Reach a Hand Uganda. My expectation was to see that we pull each other through this period with solidarity. That, in a way, helped me because my mental wellbeing was stable, because I have that standing with my team. This is very important to me because the kind of work we do is humanitarian work that culls into one’s purpose and humanity – and that comes from within. If you don’t invest in it, you lose. Everyone wants to keep busy in one way or the other. Money can be a driving factor, but it can also be a shareable factor; the small you have, share it with the team instead of laying them off. Many employers have lost great talent because of this.

About Reach A Hand Uganda

Reach a Hand Uganda is a youth centered organisation focusing on youth empowerment programs with emphasis on Livelihoods & Skills Development, Behavior Change Communication, Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights, and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

Head here to get to know more about their work.