The freedom of a man is in his voice, but the strength of a woman lies in her temerity to raise the bar of support for the supposed stance of freedom. The cliché of “every great man there is woman” is not only valid, it’s in corroboration with unwavering support being provided to the men folks.
She is daring, yet endearing. She is fearless, but faithful to her cause. An innovative author with arrays of societal impact, a multi-talented self-driven speaker, celebrated public speaker, entrepreneur par excellence, and the founder of Caring Hearts Uganda.
Barbara Itungo Kyagulanyi, popularly called Barbie, is a diligent woman dubbed as an epitome of motivation in inspiring thousands of women and Ugandans into becoming the best versions of their lives.
She a symbol of hope to her family, a role model to many teenagers, young girls and young mothers in Uganda; she has geared and championed many programs aimed at empowering and elevating the status of young people in Uganda.
Barbie has over the years manifested the real strength of a woman like how Jamaican legendary star, Shaggy sung in one of his inspirational jams, ‘Strength Of A Woman’.
Born in 1985, Barbie grew as a church girl with the opportunity to listen to stories of many girls, especially those who married not because they wanted to but because their parents had accepted dowry, it still happens albeit. With the lingering thought and cause of re-engineering the medieval narrative of forced marriage, she was admitted for a Social Works and Social Administration (SWASA) because of her noble aim to drive into activism. Credit to her strong resolve, Barbie achieved her dream; she became a full-blown girl child activist when she started her own girl child and women organization called Caring Hearts Uganda.
Caring Hearts Uganda is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) initiative that empowers and raises the standards of young people through the promotion of sustainable development, lifelong education (stay in school) mostly girls and entrepreneurship skills among many others.
The organization has been running since 2013 and Bobi Wine her husband is its patron. Since its establishment, the organization has participated in several activities including menstrual hygiene training, reusable sanitary pads making among others.
Barbie’s book ‘Golden memories of a Village Belle’ resonates her major participation in charity works, cancer awareness, HIV awareness, girl child education awareness and malaria eradication among others.
She is however, prominent for her contribution to campaigns on reducing mother and child death during birth in Uganda.
In recognition of her outstanding contributions to her immediate world as a quintessence of black excellence, the 36-year-old activist is a recipient of many awards, notable of them was the Award for supporting teen mothers ‘Cordeiro Excellence in leadership Award 2018’ by the Aid Child Leadership Institute.
This award aims to appreciate Barbie for her intuitive brilliance in leadership and mentorship of young people’s daily lives in so many different ways.
