ARISE AND SHINE UGANDA

About us

BACK GROUND:
Arise and Shine Uganda (AASU) is a community based organization (registration number 904) that has been in operation since 2010.
The organization mission is “sustainable community development through quality education”; with the goal that “orphans and other vulnerable children, and adults will have higher living standards through quality education”.
The organization head office is based in Jinja with its interventions focused in Jinja and Kamuli Districts; within the Eastern region of Uganda.
The target beneficiaries of AASU’s interventions are orphans and other vulnerable children (OVCs), community youth under 18 years and community adults above 18 years.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:
Many children in Uganda have been victimized or left in vulnerable and needy situations. This is due to the lack of adequate resources to meet family basic needs in impoverished families; especially those that are child headed families by orphans due to HIV and AIDS.
The prevalence of HIV in the Ugandan population is estimated to have been reduced from a level of 18.7% in the early 1990s to 5% today. In spite of this many people are affected by the disease without access to life saving Anti Retroviral Treatment (ART). The death of adults, leave in their wake a generation of approximately.2million orphans who are vulnerable and often have no access to education, shelter, care and treatment.
In addition to this, the high levels of poverty within Uganda (Uganda is ranked 143 on the UN Human Development Index) leaves most of the children with little or no hope to life hence high vulnerability and a poor livelihood.
The target areas of AASU’s interventions are in Jinja and Kamuli districts within the Eastern region of Uganda. AASU’s first community project is based in Kibuye village in Kamuli District. This village was selected due to its high level of poverty and number of orphaned and other vulnerable children (OVC). OVC’s such as those in Kibuye village are more disadvantaged than those in towns as they are not reached by organizational services Kibuye village has an estimated population of 60,000 people and it is spread over an area of 27 by 35 km. The majority of the population is highly dependent on subsistence farming and barter trade within the village as there are no other options to improve one’s livelihood. In addition to the lack of livelihood opportunities; there is a lack of quality education for the OVC’s to access; as well as a higher risk of being affected by HIV and AIDS. AASU also targets women and men through its interventions to help reduce the problems that may lead to OVCs such as early marriages, a lack of education; a lack of life skills and risky behaviours that lead to HIV and AIDS such as cultural practices like wife adoption and unsafe sexual practices.


PROPOSED SOLUTIONS:
In response to the problems highlighted above, AASU is focused on addressing the issues of the lack of services for OVCs, lack of education, lack of skills to develop livelihoods, and a lack of knowledge on HIV and AIDS.
In line with its strategic objectives; AASU aims to achieve the above through:
• providing quality education to OVCs through a school and orphanage established by AASU
• providing shelter, care and treatment for OVCs through the orphanage based in Jinja Town
• delivering community outreach sessions to the wider community members of Kibuye village on livelihood development, sexual reproductive health, HIV and AIDS prevention and life skills
• delivering non-formal education sessions on HIV and AIDS and life skills to the in school OVCs
The impact that the interventions mentioned above are aiming to achieve are:
• OVCs having a quality education
• OVCs living healthier and productive lives
• Community members making informed decisions regarding HIV and AIDS prevention through increased knowledge and life skills
• Community members reporting having an increased income through income generating projects (IGPs).
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
The strategic objectives of AASU are:
1) To educate, provide shelter, care and medical treatment for orphaned and other vulnerable children by 2014
2) To increase the knowledge and skills of community members in HIV and AIDS prevention and life skills to lead to positive behavior change by 2014.
3) To increase the income of community members aged 18years and above through engagement in income generating activities by 2014.
PROJECT ACTIVITIES:
The activities contributing to the achievement of the strategic objectives are outlined below per objective area.
1) To educate, provide shelter, care and medical treatment for orphaned and other vulnerable children by 2014
• Sensitisation of community members of the importance of education and of the Arise and Shine Nursery and Primary School
• Recruitment of qualified teachers
• Delivery of school lessons to in school OVCs
• Sensitisation of the community members of the Arise and Shine Orphanage
• Education, care and support to OVCs in the orphanage
2) To increase the knowledge and skills of community members in HIV and AIDS prevention and life skills to lead to positive behavior change by 2014.
• HIV and AIDS focused community outreach sessions to youth and adults
• Life skills focused community outreach sessions to youth and adults
• Extra non-formal education school lessons delivered to in-school children and youth on HIV and AIDS prevention and life skills
3) To increase the income of community members aged 18years and above through engagement in income generating activities by 2014.
• Training sessions on income generating activities to youth and adults (e.g. necklace bead making, mushroom growing, brick making and laying)
• Training sessions on entrepreneurship (this includes saving, records keeping, project management) to youth and adults
• Training sessions on modern methods of farming and storage to youth and adults
WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR:
Arise and Shine Children’s Care Home;
We have opened up a children’s home currently having 21(able bodied and disabled) children under our care. Most of these children are orphaned, abandoned or in any other vulnerable situation.We take care of these children with the aim of restoring them back to health and reuniting them with their families. Those who do not have families are adopted and the ones that don’t get adopted are taken to Kibuye village to live with foster parents and attend Arise and Shine Nursery and primary school.
Arise and Shine Nursery and primary school:
The school is located in Kibuye village in Kamuli district.A village where there was only one available school and some of the children had to study under trees. This made it difficult for the children to concentrate and study during rainy seasons.
We have constructed a school with 3 classrooms, accommodating about 30 pupils each. With the school we are encouraging and supporting the girl child education by giving both boys and girls a chance to quality education. The School is located in an area where girls are less privileged via education. In the kibuye area, if parents had less money and had to provide education to a child, that would be the boys hence the girls missing out on education and the benefits it brings!
With our community education campaign sessions, we have been able to raise awareness on the issue and in turn, we have registered many more girls in the school and the ratio of girls to boys is 3: 1.
Community education
This is a project we do to practically help address issues affecting the village. Under this project we talk about personal hygiene, Nutrition, HIV/AIDS sensitization and prevention. We have been able to reach over 1000 people in the village with this project and there has been noticeable positive behavior and attitude change towards the issues we sensitize about.
Community outreach:
In this project, we introduce income generating projects to community members in Kibuye village so community members can have a self sustainable life. Most of the community members in Kibuye village depend mostly on subsistence farming. And with the climate change, most of the gardens don’t yield as expected because the rains come at the wrong time and due to this many people suffer from famine. In this case we introduce the income generating activities so people can afford food during such times. Some of the income generating projects we have introduced in this area include,
-Paper beads necklace making supporting over 60 ladies in Kibuye community.
-Hand made Candle making supporting 15 women in the same area.
For the future we hope to introduce the following projects,
Bee raring, fish farming, tomato growing and livestock farming ( with more interest in piggery)