Uganda
Uganda Hope FOGM is a development project targeting disadvantaged communities in Northern Uganda that have been affected by decades of civil war. The project aims to improve the lives of local communities through various capacity building initiatives which involve, train, and educate local beneficiaries.
These capacity building initiatives include: building education facilities that are capable of accommodating children who have been victimized by armed conflict, providing mobile medical clinics for education and treatment of diseases, and developing a self-sustaining fish-farming business program for income generation activities amongst the local community.
As part of the mobile medical clinics, the project’s medical teams travel to rural IDP camps and villages providing medical supplies, basic health education, HIV teaching and prevention education, first aid and diagnosis and treatment of simple diseases.
Future plans for the project include the expansion of its education facility (currently with 33 students) and the construction of a well and pond system to form the basis of the fish-farming business project. This well and pond system will also provide the community with a hygienic water supply and a sustainable source of food.
By engaging in a diverse assortment of development activities the project will sustainably benefit local communities both immediately and into the future.
After long periods of civil war in Northern Uganda, the social and economic fabric of the community has been destroyed and the majority of the population has yet to re-establish itself in traditional village communities. A significant portion of Kitgum’s population is or was displaced and consequently is most vulnerable to insecurity; poor quality of life; psychological trauma; inadequate levels of health, education, and water facilities; and high rates of malnutrition; extreme poverty; and alcoholism. Female-headed households have become commonplace as many men were killed during the civil conflict. In addition, many of the children were abducted, and those that have returned have physical and psychological scars that need tending as they try reintegrate into the community.
The project operates in and around Kitgum province to support conflict-affected the vulnerable persons to reintegrate and establish sources of livelihood and strengthen community and household capacity to mitigate the effects of the conflicts. This program has five key areas of operation: water and sanitation; primary and vocational education; health; establishing social and peace based networks; and income generation and building community capacity.
Current initiatives include:
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8,000 pupils are receiving a primary school education through four purpose built primary schools (including water and sanitation on site also accessed by local villagers) in collaboration with the Ugandan Government.
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1,500 pupils attending the Vocation Training Centre and Technical Institute for training youth and ex-child soldiers for self sufficiency as builders; carpenters; administrators; tailors and farmers.
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Community restoration programs to counsel ex-child soldiers and victims of war-based violence, community visitation, rebuild widows’ houses; youth focused cultural and sport activities.
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Community radio station providing opportunities to restore and build peace and community education through developing creativity in war-oppressed community through dance, drama, art and literature.
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Gloryland Junction AIDS hospice providing terminal AIDS patients with palliative care and providing care and education for their dependent children in neighbouring residential care.
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Water and sanitation projects in villages being restabilised by former inhabitants of internally displaced people (IDP) camps, returned war victims and ex-child soldiers where existing water sources were destroyed or contaminated by the LRA during the conflict.
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Broad scale agricultural training programs in crop and livestock management in order to provide training on maximising crop yield and animal welfare, while also supplying food security and sustainability for Irene Gleeson Foundation projects.
During the civil war in Northern Uganda, the children of Uganda suffered immensely. Over 30,000 children were abducted and forced to serve as soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), or given as sex slaves. HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases plague society, contributing to the growing number of orphans. Young girls were abducted by the LRA and forced into sexual servitude often resulting in pregnancy and subsequent rejection by their community. Other issues include corruption, economic depression, poor water and sanitation systems, a lack of education and health systems.
In response to the War Affected Children crisis, ‘Watoto’ has been sponsoring a number of children in Gulu Village who have formerly been abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army. The Watoto Gulu Village project is developed to become self-sustaining, providing holistic care for the complete needs of the children and the community including schools, a medical clinic, a clean water source, electrical power, teacher housing and a trauma rehabilitation centre.
Income generation activities are also provided for the wider community through the development of a small scale vegetable farm, which provides food for the children, and also a furniture production unit. These activities assist in generating self-sustainable funding for the community and vocational training for adults within Gulu.
By providing a diverse holistic care model the project aims to assist in the rehabilitation and reintegration of War Affected Children back into Ugandan society, while providing sustainable benefits for the wider local communities both immediately and into the future.
HopeBuilders Uganda is a development project with the aim to assist in the establishing and implementing a holistic care and training program. This will be supported by sponsorship, with the aim of implementing self sustainable enterprise/income generation activities within the community - primarily in the form of agricultural farming.
The aim of the project is to establish a facility incorporating the following:
• medical facilities,
• education,
• small business/enterprise training,
• agricultural farm training
• emergency accommodation,
• It will also provide a base for fostering orphaned and vulnerable children into stable ‘family’ environments that will also be supported through a sponsorship program.
Akanyijuka Children Homes is a holistic care development project which aims to assist and improve the lives of orphans and abandoned children of Kabale, Uganda and the surrounding villages.
The project is currently caring holistically for 40 children by providing shelter, food, medical care and schooling to better enable the beneficiaries to participate in the wider community successfully and constructively – both in the present and into the future. Akanyijuka provides the children with a well-rounded education, using the Ugandan government developed curriculum and through overseas volunteers who train and improve the capacity of local teachers. In addition, the organisation is assisting the local community to work towards self-sustainability through the development of a vegetable farm that provides both food for the students but also vocational training and work opportunities for adults in the wider community.
The Watoto Village Project is multi-faceted integrated development project whose direct beneficiaries are primarily orphaned, vulnerable and at risk children and women and widows from northern Ugandan. Uganda is a country still recovering from years of conflict with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
The project includes multiple villages of residences/homes for children and mothers replicating a loving, caring family; education from early childhood development through to university and vocational training and job opportunities; community outreach programs; income generation employment for women; sustainability initiatives – agriculture, guest houses, small businesses, development education and promotion through children’s choirs travelling the developed world; health and medical intervention and training and much more.
In addition, the Watoto Village Project runs the Living Hope medical program, which offers medical and psychological support to victims of war – particularly women and children who were forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves. There are 900+ women; 85% HIV+ within this program. Primary goals of the program are to restore dignity and provide income generation; empowering women through life skills and income opportunities. Living Hope Women were psychologically, emotionally and sexually abused by the LRA; held hostage by warlords; lived within IDP camps; and loss family members. Incorporated into Living Hope is a trauma rehabilitation program which provides mental health support in the form of trauma rehabilitation and clinical psychology training for victims of war.
By providing a multi-faceted project, Watoto aims to assist in the rehabilitation and reintegration of victims of warin Northern Uganda back into Ugandan society, while providing sustainable benefits for the wider local communities both immediately and into the future.
The Africa Kids Foundation (AKF) is a development project focused on community development and assisting orphans from the AIDS epidemic in Uganda’s capital of Kampala. The project aims to assist the orphans by developing in their community solar power systems, hot water systems, fresh water drinking tanks, improved sanitation facilities/education and establishing a sustainable farm. In addition AKF has been able to assist adult members of the local community to establish their own micro-businesses enabling them to be self-sufficient through income generation activities. Some of these businesses include poultry farming, a bakery, sewing industry and a typing/printing service.
Operation Uganda is a multi-faceted development project aimed at improving the lives of children at risk and their local community of Kasubi, in Uganda’s capital of Kampala.
Combined with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the increasing number of orphans and children at risk is one of the biggest challenges facing Uganda today. UNICEF estimates the figure between 3.5 to 4 million orphans in Uganda and the majority of them live below the poverty line of one US dollar a day.
The project aims to improve the lives of this vulnerable group through various capacity building initiatives which involve, train, and educate local beneficiaries. While caring for 60 orphans and operating a community placement program, the Operation Uganda centre also serves as a community centre providing training courses for people in hygiene, sanitation, and literacy. Further, there are future plans to establish a community nursing clinic which will specifically target pre and post-natal care, HIV/AIDS awareness and malaria awareness and treatment.
A wider community development program of the project is to implement a bio-sand filter project and a sustainable garden project. These projects will provide the local beneficiary community with cleaner drinking water as well as fresh vegetables for households in the slum areas.
By engaging in a diverse assortment of development activities the project will assist orphans and children at risk in their development into adulthood as well as sustainably benefit the local community of Kasubi both immediately and into the future.
The ACCN Kumi COHAD project is a multi-layered development project focused on improving the lives of orphans and widows in the Kumi district of eastern Uganda. COHAD seeks to raise capable, educated Ugandans by placing orphaned and at-risk children into a family environment and providing the essentials for a fulfilled life.
Teams of volunteer tradespeople from Australia are also sent to assist in providing vocational training and skill development for local community tradespeople working on the construction of the project.
In addition the projects includes micro-enterprising for income generation activities and developing a biogas project.
The project with African Action International (AAI) in Masindi district of Uganda is a multi-faceted development project which aims to improve the health and well-being of the community through the provision of medical services and clean water sources.
With community consultation, the AAI project has been able to identify key areas and to establish sink water wells for clean drinking water. Health is a more difficult concept to define than disease; it’s not just the absence of disease but probably a much more holistic term envisaging wholesomeness. AAI has organised Safeway Clinics in the district of Masindi to provide the local community with much-needed medical services. These clinics are operated by trained medical staff from the local community.
In addition, AAI is also developing a microfinance organisation to establish income generation activates for local beneficiaries while also empowering children in the nearby Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camp of Panyadoli through education (these children being refugees from the civil war within the north of the country).
The Liberty Development Foundation’s (LIDEFO) project is a Professional Training Centre, which is based in Kasese, western Uganda. This not-for-profit vocational training centre, run by locals from the Kasese area, aims to facilitate skills development among the disadvantaged and improve their social and economic status, thereby promoting self-reliance.
Part of the instability in the many areas of Uganda is caused by a lack of employment, especially amongst the youth. The vocational training centre therefore strives to equip students with a trade or life skill that will enable them to work their way out of poverty. The College has recently expanded its facilities, providing its students with two new specialist classrooms – a kitchen classroom and a journalism-media computer laboratory.
This project will help many students in Kasese to learn a skill and provide them with opportunities they never thought possible.
