OVC Sponsorship Project
We identify Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) from Rural communities or those who have been referred to us. These are children who are bright but cannot afford school fees and scholastic materials. We currently have 33 children under this program in primary and secondary schools.
Literacy Development Project
This project started in 2019 and was conducted at Wabulungu Primary School, aimed to address low literacy levels by improving relationships between parents, teachers, and students whilst increasing their capacity to contribute to literacy development inside and outside of school. When this project began in early April, Wabulungu had 1,895 students enrolled and only 26 teachers. We are still looking for more funding to continue with this project.
Positive Deviance Project
After a thorough assessment, CCUg was selected to collect data and implement the project in Mayuge district on behalf of Twaweza East Africa. Twaweza chose to use Positive Deviance (PD) as a strategy to identify evidence-based strategies in schools and communities to improve children’s learning outcomes in East Africa and to experiment and bring to scale those that work. The underlying thinking is that “some schools and communities in districts achieving consistently low learning outcomes have devised strategies and practices that are enabling them to achieve better learning outcomes for their children while using similar levels of resources”.
Livelihood Program
The goal of this theme is to empower women and youth to obtain gainful employment and engage in meaningful and sustainable income-generating activities. We have Vocation Skills project and Group Saving Project. This program also helps them to save and easily access simple loans to boost their small businesses.
Vocation Skills Project
Carried out from our offices in Wairaka, Jinja, the vocational skills project caters to young women – mostly school-drop-out girls and young mothers – to provide them access to vocational skills in the form of tailoring, hairdressing, basic computer skills, parenting skills, crafts, and business management. By the end of 2019, the Community Resource Centre (CRC) had enrolled 18 students.
Food Security and Nutrition Project
As part of the OVC enrollment process in 2017, we conducted a needs assessment survey among OVC households, and results found that over 8 in 10 households were facing a food insecurity problem. 6 In partnership with Global Giving, we initiated a fundraising campaign to reduce food insecurity among OVC households. The project provides support that allows caregivers to access farming land, tools, and seeds. This project, which started in 2018, is still ongoing as we continue to seek more funds through a fundraising campaign on Global Giving, which has so far raised $6,359 out of a goal of $11,000.7 Altogether, 27 households from 2 communities (Bugodi and Bukakatube) have received these services.
Group Saving Project
Like a Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA), the GSP is comprised of mostly women (10- 25), living in the same villages, and known to each other, who occasionally meet to save and acquire loans from their pooled savings. At the beginning of each savings year, each group agrees on a specific interest rate with which the loans will be taken. CCUg has a stake in each group due to money that it occasionally injects in groups to meet their credit requirements. By the end of 2019, CCUg was facilitating 8 groups comprised of 185 members in 8 villages in Jinja and Mayuge districts. Of these groups, 5 groups (Mauta – 10 members, Bukoli – 12 members, Bukatube – 10 members, Wabulungu – 10 members and Bugodi – 16 members) belonged to OVC caregivers while 3 groups, Nakalanga (80 members), Magamaga (26 members) and Wairaka (20) belonged to local income-earning women in these villages. The 5 OVC groups had some male OVC caregivers as members while the remaining 3 groups comprised of only women.
Under this theme, our main focus is Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), and Mental Health. By the end of 2019, we had implemented 3 projects related to health. This included 2 projects associated with Menstruation/WASH and one regarding School-Related Gender-Based Violence.
Health Program
Water Sanitation & Hygiene Project
We constructed 6 Wash Rooms in 3 Primary Schools- Wabulungu and Nalinaibi in Mayuge district and St. Matia Mulumba in Jinja district. This project started in November 2018 and ended in November 2019 and was funded by The Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW). The project was conducted in 3 primary schools –Menstrual Health Management. We are looking for more funding to construct more Washrooms in other Primary and Secondary Schools.
Menstrual Hygiene Management Project
After successfully implementing a one-year Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) project, AmplifyChange renewed its support to CCUg to strengthen and expand the project. Initially, the project was conducted in 15 primary and secondary schools. The renewal started in June 2019 and allowed CCUg to expand the project to 20 schools and communities in 11 sub-counties in Jinja and Mayuge districts.
Gender Based Violence Project
With financial and human resource support from the Foundation for Sustainable Community Development (FSD), CCUg implemented a project to address School-Related Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV) in two secondary schools – Waitambogwe in Mayuge and Buyengo in Jinja district. The project was implemented by a team of four international interns (shown in the photograph above) from Northwest University. The project aimed at producing material on SRGBV through Community-Based Research (CBR) while building the capacity of teachers to raise awareness and respond to GBV cases in schools.
