LISA COZZI: A REAL ESTATE AGENT MAKING A DIFFERENCE When the Great Recession hit in 2008, the financial crisis forced Lisa Cozzi to put her flourishing career as a top producing real estate broker and investor on hold. Little did she realize that within a year, she would find herself in Soroti, a small village desperately in need of water in the Teso Region of Eastern Uganda. Lisa was introduced to Soroti by Father Richard Okiria, a priest she had invited to bless her home in West Hartford, Connecticut. Father Okiria was planning a mission to his birthplace and invited Lisa to join him. She felt that she needed a new purpose and that going on the mission would be the first step to rebuild and give meaning to her life. She accepted his invitation and that singular moment is when Lisa’s lifelong commitment to providing clean water was born. The Teso region is among the poorest communities in Uganda and is still recovering from a 10-year conflict that ravaged the area from 1986 to 2010. It is also located in the most arid part of Uganda and therefore faces adverse climate change effects when extended droughts cause all small water points to dry up. Many women and girls were forced to walk over 10 miles to get clean water.
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