Cooking, learning and plenty of laughter with the women of Shining Stars
Some of the best moments on an Impact Trip happen around a table.
At our Shining Stars CBO in Jinja, cooking together has become one of those experiences visitors remember long after returning home. It is not about arriving with something to teach. Quite the opposite. It is a chance to step into the kitchen, roll up your sleeves and learn from the women who know exactly what they are doing.
For David Schmidt, who recently returned to Uganda for the second time, the cooking workshops were once again one of the highlights.
“The food is incredible, but what I love most is learning from the women, trying new skills and all the laughter in the kitchen. I always leave with a full stomach and something new I’ve learned.”
Learning from the women of Shining Stars
Cooking is part of everyday life at Shining Stars. During our weekend programs, meals are prepared for the children, and food and nutrition are an important part of our wider work with families.
During an Impact Trip, visitors get the opportunity to join in.
Together with the local team, we prepare Ugandan dishes from scratch. Vegetables are washed and chopped, dough is mixed and rolled, sauces simmer, and everyone gets a job.
And there is usually plenty of advice when you are doing yours wrong.
For David, that is exactly what makes it so much fun.
Making chapati may look easy when you watch someone who has done it hundreds of times. Then you try rolling the dough yourself. Or cutting vegetables the way you were just shown. Or following instructions while several conversations and a lot of laughter are happening around you.
Suddenly, lunch becomes a lesson.
Food brings people together
The cooking workshop is not designed as a performance for visitors. It is about doing something together.
There is no presentation and no formal introduction needed when everyone has vegetables to chop and food to prepare. Conversations happen naturally. People compare techniques, ask questions, laugh at unsuccessful attempts and eventually sit down to eat what they have made together.
For us, these moments reflect something important about how we want people to experience 22STARS.
Our local teams are not simply implementing programs for visitors to observe. They bring years of knowledge, skills and relationships to the work they lead in their communities. An Impact Trip gives visitors the opportunity to spend time with them, ask questions and learn firsthand.
Sometimes that means talking about education, entrepreneurship or the challenges families face.
And sometimes it means discovering that your chapati technique still needs quite a lot of work.
A different way to experience our work
It can be easy to think that visiting a nonprofit means coming to see how you can help.
We want our Impact Trips to feel different.
They are about meeting people, exchanging perspectives and understanding our work through the people who lead it every day.
The cooking workshops capture that beautifully. Everyone contributes. Everyone learns something. And when the cooking is finished, everyone eats together.
David has now visited Uganda twice, but the kitchen in Jinja remains one of his favourite places to be.
Not because it is where he can make the biggest contribution.
Because it is where he gets to learn.
And because somehow, between the vegetables, chapatis and friendly instructions, there is always a lot of laughter.
Come experience it yourself
Our 22STARS Impact Trips offer the opportunity to experience our work in Kampala and Jinja alongside the local teams and communities behind it.
You will learn about our education and community programs, take part in activities, share meals and spend time with the people who make 22STARS what it is.
And if you find yourself in the kitchen in Jinja, come hungry.