One Mango Tree began as a seed – an idea that came to mind during Founder and Director Halle Butvin’s first trip to Uganda in June 2006. She traveled to Uganda with a student trip organized by Global Youth Partnership for Africa, with the goal of learning more about the conflict in northern Uganda and how youth could play a role in building peace in the country.  While focusing on this substantive work, Halle also tuned in to the sights and sounds of the country – the landscape made of a million shades of green against the red earth, the music of the Acholi people – combining jemba, bells and ululations, the colors of the marketplace – with bright fabrics and whirring sewing machines. She met women that made rolled paper beads and sold them to tourists to earn a living. She spent hours during her last days in the country wandering around the market and choosing carved wooden masks, jewelry crafted from trade beads, and baskets woven from papyrus and banana leaf.

On several subsequent trips to Uganda, Halle continued working with Global Youth Partnership for Africa, bringing American and Ugandan youth together to focus on the elements of sustainable peace. She listened to lectures and dialog among young leaders, civil society groups, and Ugandan individuals, and picked up on an underlying thread in all of these discussions – the importance of economic empowerment.  

A seedling was already sprouting at this point, as Halle explored possible artisan connections in Kampala. She began to think beyond fair trade – putting together a model that would emphasize a combination of market connection, job creation, and practical social programs – a business model that could set an example for the type of economic and social empowerment necessary to build a foundation for sustainable peace.

With this added dimension, the focus naturally shifted to women living and working in northern Uganda - a region that did not benefit from the existing markets and infrastructure in Kampala. Halle met Auma Lucy in Gulu’s central market in July 2007, and the pieces of One Mango Tree came together.