After getting married right out of high school, Dave and Morgan Hansow were no strangers to making debatable decisions. That might have had something to do with their life-changing choice to move to Uganda and start the non-profit organization Light Gives Heat after seeing the devastation many Ugandans were going through while searching for the daughter they would adopt.

The organization’s mission, as their website states, is to offer “displaced women from war-torn Northern Uganda the opportunity to earn a consistent income each week.” They do this through their product lines SUUBI (which means “hope”) and handbag line EPOH (the word “hope” spelled backwards), which are made by displaced people from Northern Uganda for which the sale of offers consistent incomes. The SUUBI line is comprised of jewelry made from recycled materials and the EPOH line consists of handbags with a story of the tailor printed inside of the bag.

The couple and their organization brought their latest project, an award-winning documentary titled “Moving On” that details their move to Uganda and humble beginnings of Life Gives Heat, to Colorado Mesa University on April 24. It was described as the first stop, or “mock trial,” on their 140-city tour where they will show their documentary to about 300 universities nationwide.

“Over this next year, we’re working on doing a tour around the country,” Dave said. “What we’re always on the lookout for is a new market so we can sell these products that we offer so that we can offer more jobs to more people.”

While they have been the recipients of a lot of praise and good will as of late, they still are no strangers to criticism from those who feel that they aren’t doing enough to help people in their own country who want to know what the “real” motive is behind it all.

“As soon as you say you’re doing something good, immediately people want to know where every penny goes,” Dave said. “They have this natural assumption that you’re trying to rip people off…there is something weird about that culturally. If you claim to do something good, you can’t make any money, but if you claim to do anything else, then they don’t care at all. It’s weird and all of us just assume that’s normal.”

As for where they see the documentary going and what they have planned for the future with Light Gives Heat, both Dave and Morgan know that it is about taking everything as it comes, especially the risks. Morgan then explained that she has been a bit taken aback by it all, but she knows the important thing is to keep moving forward.

“Never in a million years would I have thought that we would make a movie and I never thought that would have been my life,” Morgan said. “So I think we’ve learned that it’s taking the next step, It’s about the journey, and now that this movie is complete, we’re gonna risk again and see what happens with this tour. It’s been something we’ve put a lot of money and investment and time into for the last two years, so our focus needs to be the film because that’s what is going to be the tool that kind of propels Life Gives Heat to the next level where we can hire on some more staff and have the kind of income that can allow us the opportunity to grow as an organization.”