Preserving Our Cultural Heritage
TM teachers and Honorable former Members of Parliament with Omugo (Queen) Tulituuka Rebecca (third from left)
and Queen Kemigisha Best (center)
African Women and Girls Organization for Total Knowledge (AWAGO) recognizes the vital importance of protecting the cultural heritage of every nation to create a healthy, happy, prosperous world, and works to protect precious cultural and spiritual traditions by offering practical programmes and courses such as the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique which provide a means for every individual to uphold, sustain and enrich her or his own life for the welfare of the family, society and nation.
Cultural Memberships and Affiliations
AWAGO takes pride in partnering with women’s organizations that share common goals. We are proud to be a member of the African Queens and Women Cultural Leaders Network (AQWCLN), under the leadership of Queen Kemigisha Best of Toro Cultural Institution. The aim of AQWCLN is to be an effective partner for the brokerage, advocacy, and implementation of innovative initiatives for the advancement and empowerment of women and girls, and the fulfillment of their social, economic, and cultural rights.
With the evidence-based Transcendental Meditation technique and its advanced programmes, AWAGO is an able partner to all women’s organizations and networks that share a common purpose: to nourish, enrich and uplift the women of Uganda so that the ancient cultural values are naturally restored.
“Since I started Transcendental Meditation I feel much more in control of my self and the environment around me. As a mother, given the work we do at home, taking care of the children, and preparing food, TM has helped me to balance all these activities and yet get time to relax.
One other tremendous experience was when I was asked to give a speech in two minutes before the President of Uganda as queen of Kooki Cultural Institution. I talked in the given time with confidence and yet it was my first time ever to address many people. Since I became a queen all this was possible because of my TM practice.
It is my deep wish to help bring greater peace and happiness to the lives of the women and their families in our Kooki Cultural Institution, and I recommend every one to learn TM, and begin to enjoy these benefits.”
AWAGO also has the great privilege to collaborate on projects with Honorable former Members of Uganda Parliament: Hon. Babiiha Jane Alisemera, Hon. Kiryapawo Loy Kageni, Hon. Kwizera Eudia, and Hon. Rutangye Erinah, who serve on the African Women and Girls Organization Advisory Board and are all members of the Executive Committee of African Queens and Women’s Cultural Leaders Network. These great women have served their country with great dedication over many years and we are honored to work with them to achieve our mutual goals.
“We always enjoy working on projects with the African Women and Girls Organization. We all appreciate the benefits of our TM practice – with greater energy and ability to manage our busy lives with more ease and efficiency, and we also see the impact and positive influence on our families.”
A Universal Practice to Serve the Unified Goals of the Nation
The TM technique is a universal practice that anybody from any religion or cultural heritage can enjoy. It does not require adopting a certain lifestyle or religious belief. It is a simple meditation practice that awakens the unified source of all thinking, activity, and behavior within the individual—our universal common heritage—the transcendental level of life. It is an easy and effortless systematic technique that takes the active thinking mind to its silent source, where individual awareness connects with the infinite source of energy and intelligence of nature itself.
THE WORLD IS A MOSAIC … Because the world is a mosaic of countless cultural traditions, each a vessel through which the wisdom and experience of millennia is carried forward, it is vital that a common practice is available to harmonize all the differences. When we teach the Transcendental Meditation technique the first thing that we hear from the women and children is that they feel greater harmony in family life, and children of all ages describe getting along better with friends at school and siblings at home. These microcosms — the classroom and the home — of societal life, are among the many fundamental units or building blocks of our larger society. When we generate more harmonious environments at this level, the national consciousness naturally radiates that coherence and harmony. This is a practical vision for how we can create unity in the midst of diversity.
SUSTAINING LIFE IN HARMONY WITH THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE … Going deeper into the principles of natural law within a land and nation, we can appreciate the necessity of preserving the unique geographic and climatic conditions that are fundamental to sustaining life in harmony with the land and its people. When cultural traditions and languages are lost or fragmented, when there is continual degradation of the environment, as has happened in the world in the last decades, the link to nature’s intelligence—the natural law of the land—is weakened, and the culture loses its effectiveness in promoting life in an evolutionary direction.
This is why we consider the necessity of preserving ancient traditions of a land, preserving the environment and its vital ecosystems for survival of the land, by incorporating simple practices that are effective in raising the quality of individual life. AWAGO will continue to work with women’s organizations, government agencies and the private sector to contribute programmes and courses in support of these essential requirements to enrich family and societal life so that a bright future is secured for the coming generations.
THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF MOTHERS IN THE NATION … Through the full awakening of individual life in harmony with national life and the environment, the welfare of the whole nation rises in peace, progress, and fulfillment. The women, the mothers of the nation, play a uniquely nourishing role in upholding the cultural integrity of the land as first teacher and primary care-giver of the nation’s children. By offering programmes to uplift the women of Uganda, AWAGO works to fulfill its mission to enliven, awaken and preserve ancient cultural traditions.
Teachers of the Transcendental Meditation technique in Uganda
Celebrating at the Home of Queen Kemigisha Best of Toro Cultural Institution
Pictured: Hon. Babiiha Jane Alisemera, Hon. Kiryapawo Loy Kageni, Hon. Rutangye Erinah, Hon. Kwizera Eudia
AWAGO leaders, Honorables, and international guests Drs. Leslee and Bill Goldstein from Maharishi University of Management USA, celebrated with Queen Best during an event in honor of Zonta International, an organization that seeks to empower women worldwide by improving the legal, political, economic, educational, health, and professional status of women at the global and local levels through service and advocacy.
15 May Celebration with Kamuswaga and Omugo of Kooki Cultural Institution
Upon receipt of invitation by Omugo (Queen) Tulituuka Rebecca, leaders of AWAGO attended the annual 15 May, 2015 celebration honoring the day that Kamuswaga (King) sansa Apollo Kabumbuli II, her husband, was installed on the throne as the hereditary cultural leader of the Bakooki people, a chiefdom located in the Rakai district bordering Tanzania. This is one of the many cultural institutions restored by His Excellency the President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, legally recognized by the government of Uganda.
On this special day each year, the people of Kooki celebrate and Kamuswaga presents a theme for the day that addresses the challenges of its people.
As Kooki Cultural Institution leaders, Kamuswaga and Omugo work to implement important services for their people which cannot normally reach them due to their rural environment. In this regard, they have encouraged environmental conservation through massive tree planting in the region to promote economic empowerment of their women and youth who are the most vulnerable group.
Omugo Rebecca works specifically on projects to help the women and girls in Kooki to address practices such as child marriage which many face due to poverty, as well as promoting education for girls to provide them equal opportunities. She is passionate about the health of children, and so is also planning on introducing a nutrition center that provides a meal programme for the most vulnerable children. “This is my dream for Kooki,” said Omugo Rebecca when asked about her motivations and inspirations for Kooki Cultural Institution.
AWAGO leaders were greatly inspired and honored to attend this celebration, and proud to share a common mission to uplift the women and girls of Uganda. Our work demonstrates the effectiveness of our programmes to empower women and girls, and improve their health and well-being.