Nguvu Dairy: A Trauma Informed Workplace in Northern Uganda
by Larry Sharp
This month we are featuring stories from Larry Sharp. Larry’s new book ‘Mission Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missionary Professionals’ tells 27 stories and is out now!
Abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Gloria was forced to be a child soldier in northern Uganda. Although girls sometimes carried rifles on the front lines, they usually did the cooking for the boys involved in guerilla warfare and served the sexual wishes of the commanders. After eight years, she managed to escape the LRA and returned home. Life, however, continued to be hard. No one trusted her, not even her sisters. They thought she was a killer and to be avoided at all costs. She couldn’t find work and barely survived on the few things she could grow on a tiny subsistence plot of land. But then her life changed:
The moment I stepped inside the gates of Nguvu Dairy I felt a sense of peace. James was so kind and friendly, and he taught all of us victims how to make yogurt. He was patient and encouraging. Nguvu Dairy has changed my life. I have a job and can rent a little house in town and afford school fees for my son.
As a highly traumatized young woman, Gloria was forced to labor as an exploited, brain-washed, and hopeless child. But by God’s grace she was one of the few who found hope of the more than one hundred thousand children worldwide forced to serve in state and non-state military organizations.
James Dirksen is a seasoned entrepreneur and business owner and while in northern Uganda asked himself the foundational question, “what happens to survivors when they finish a program of the NGO, mission or care organizations?” After plenty of research and planning he began to focus on starting real businesses to take the next critical step to bring healing to survivors and provide full-time employment.
Human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar business, trading in people. Creating safe jobs is critical to ending the cycle of economic vulnerability at the root of this global crisis. Without safe employment 80% of those rescued return to trafficking or voluntary enslavement.
James soon then founded The Market Project with a vision to see men and women find hope and flourish through safe, dignity-affirming, healing work in profitable businesses that offer stable jobs and support healing for survivors of trauma, exploitation, and trafficking.
He understood the role of the NGO and care organizations in rescue, care and development of survivors and he understood the role of microbusinesses, but he wanted to address unsustainable factors such as foreign funding, lack of a pathway to safe employment, and no trauma-informed approach to bringing lasting hope. Their first business was the Nguvu Dairy in the Gulu district.
The yogurt is hand-produced from milk sourced from cows on twenty dairy farms. Distribution is coordinated in nine sales centers. A team of salespeople in purple shirts hits the streets far and wide on custom bicycles with coolers attached on the back.
I was impressed with three unique strengths of The Market Project (TMP) and the Nguvu Dairy business.
1. James and others helped research and develop the TMP publication “Trauma-Informed Approach: Understanding Trauma and Its Implications.” It is one of the best programs for understanding survivors and helping them transition to productive employment. Today, Dorothy Taft, who is an experienced advocate for human rights and dignity, directs the international work of TMP.
2. James understood the necessity of striving toward scaling a business to more than one hundred employees. Market research led them to settle on a yogurt production and distribution business. Nguvu Dairy now employs over two hundred men and women, 65% of whom have endured severe traumas. Not only do employees learn the skill of the company, but the dairy continues the trauma care and training of the care organizations.
3. BAM companies strive for the Quadruple Bottom Line and Nguvu Dairy does just that. It is a profitable business; it creates jobs. They care just as much about making disciples as they care about making a profit. Trained pastors work at each distribution center and provide counseling, Bible studies, prayer, and encouragement. So far nine churches have been started. The yogurt product is locally sourced and handmade with fresh milk that comes from local cows and quality culture. It is delivered to customers and sold from bicycles. In every way possible they are careful with God’s creation.
I heard the stories of Gloria, Stephen, Winifred and more. Theirs is the story of pain and suffering. But theirs is also the story of someone who cared, a story of rescue and restoration, a story of productive work and healing – and a story of beginning to follow Jesus as his disciple.
More about this story and many others can be read in the book Mission Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missionary Professionals, see below.
Larry Sharp is the Founder and current Director of Strategic Training and Partnerships of a Business for Transformation (BAM, B4t) consulting firm, International Business and Education Consultants (www.ibecventures.com). Larry served 21 years in Brazil and then 20 years as Crossworld VP of Operations and as Vice President of Business Partnerships. He is currently a VP Emeritus and consultant with Crossworld. Since 2007 he has devoted energies toward Business as Mission (BAM) and currently is a consultant on BAM and education themes. Larry travels within North America speaking and teaching in conferences, colleges and churches on themes related to Business As Mission (BAM, B4t) and missions. His travels abroad relate to BAM, crisis preparation and management, and team building.
Get the new BAM Book: Missions Disrupted by Larry Sharp
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