YAREN'S ACTIVITIES ARE TO BE DONE BETWEEN JUNE TO DECEMBER 2023
YAREN is a non-profit organization operating in Uganda in favor of refugees and people in need of different types of support. Active since 2017, YAREN went through a start-up period with a few important projects, survived the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic (particularly hard in Uganda), and now it’s time to reorganize YAREN, giving it a structure that will allow re-engineering processes, tracking the activities and finances according to modern principles of project management and financial reporting, in order to gain the credibility that YAREN deserves in the international landscape of charity and non-profit, to maintain its focus, and to make possible more high-quality initiatives for the benefit of its target groups in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Central Wakiso District Ndejje Division Ndejje Ward Bongole Kampala, and Eastern Region Bugiri District Muwayo Town Council.
For the first time, its typical initiatives (Education, Health, Hygiene and Sanitation, Livelihood and Women Empowerment, and Humanitarian aid and emergency response) are allocated in an operative framework with a clear definition, measurable objectives, and planned dates, all supported by a communication plan and the research of funding that goes beyond what we could ever hope.
YAREN is enhancing the entrepreneurial characteristics of their assisted people bringing their products to international markets, creating more possibilities for YAREN and the people they assist.
2. Introduction
We are an organization based on Biblical principles. We have been equipped with the Grace of God to create a better society for high-risk communities. Improve living standards by tackling poverty and unemployment in high-risk communities, a desire to increase local capacities, and provide opportunities through self-resilience with improved income as life changes.
YAREN Organisation is a non-profit organization founded in 2017. Its main office is in the Central Wakiso District Ndejje Division, Ndejje Ward, Bongole in Kampala, Uganda. Our primary purpose is to enable the high-risk communities, YAREN’s mission and vision are defined as follows:
Mission
Creating a better society for high-risk communities.
Improve living standards by tackling poverty and unemployment in high-risk communities, increase local capacities, and provide opportunities through self-resilience with a better income.
Vision
Train, promote, and empower high-risk communities with skills that will enable them to become self-resilient.Stimulate entrepreneurship and improve sustainable community practices enhancing livelihood opportunities.
YAREN works towards improving the quality of life of most rural communities and refugees, providing a space and a voice for the most marginalized people in the community to exercise their rights.
YAREN’s background and history
“In a dream, I saw an organization called YAREN that helps people in difficult situations, such as war survivors, sick individuals, rejected people, and those in conflict. The organization brings these people together, provides them with skills, and empowers them. In the dream, I witnessed the transformation of these individuals: they were happy, smarter, and their lives changed for the better. I woke up and wrote about this in my book tonight. This dream became a reality in April 2017…” when YAREN was founded by Muganuzi Mushongole Adonis, a young refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, after having experienced refugee life since 2015.
The milestones of YAREN's history are the following:
- 2017 foundation of YAREN
- 2019 YAREN was formally registered by the local Government of the Isingiro District
- In 2023 YAREN became a national organization as YAREN Organisation LTD in Central Wakiso District Ndejje Division Ndejje Ward Bongole Kampala, Uganda.
- YAREN is going through the process of becoming a Non-Governmental Organization, and is getting organized and structured to perfect and document its compliance with the principles of:
- Transparency
- Financial efficiency
- Impact and effectiveness
- Governance and accountability
- Program Alignment
Accomplishments
YAREN launched 11 initiatives in the following areas:
- Education
- Preventing SGBV (Sexual and gender-based violence) and child marriage
- Clean Water / WASH
- Personal hygiene (soap, women's pads, face masks, gloves)
- Peace
For a total value of USD 31,722 for about 7, 530 people.
YAREN’s values and guiding principles
YAREN is guided by the following 3 fundamental principles:
- Use of indigenous knowledge to achieve the highest quality standards, compatibly with the native environment, in promoting a culture of innovation and creativity
- Efficient management of resources
- Cohesion to enable collective action
3. Environmental Analysis
To give a clear perspective to potential partners and donors, we describe the environment in which YAREN operates.
SWOT analysis
Strengths:
- Extensive experience and expertise in working with local non-profit organizations and high-risk communities.
- Network and partnerships with local organizations.
- Dedicated and passionate team committed to the mission and vision of YAREN.
- Successful implementation of pilot projects in areas such as WASH, general health, humanitarian aid, education, and livelihoods.
Weaknesses:
- Given our insufficient financial resources, we depend on sporadic donations.
- Lack of a solid and sustainable business model.
- Limited staff capacity and need for additional skilled personnel.
- Challenges in scaling up operations.
- Insufficient workplace, a need for our land’s construction
Opportunities:
- Growing recognition and support for organizations addressing the needs of high-risk communities.
- Collaboration opportunities with mentorship programs for our trainees and for YAREN itself to build and execute a new solid and sustainable business model.
- Potential for securing grants and funding from international donors.
- Potential funding through international trade of items manufactured/crafted by our trainees
Threats:
- Economic and political instability in the region, which may impact funding opportunities and operations.
- Competition for limited resources and donor funding within the non-profit sector.
- Legal and regulatory challenges associated with non-profit operations.
- Potential for community resistance to, or skepticism towards, external interventions and innovative processes.
Analysis of the external environment
YAREN operates in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, the 8th largest refugee camp in the world, which is in the Isingiro District in Southwest Uganda, near its border with Tanzania. This settlement was established in 1958 and officially recognized as a refugee settlement in 1960.
Nakivale refugee settlement is approximately 200 km away from Kampala, Uganda's capital. It is one of the oldest refugee settlements in Uganda. It is estimated at well beyond 180 square kilometres. This enormous area is geographically divided into three administrative zones: Base camp, Juru, and Rubondo, but also Central Wakiso District Ndejje Division Ndejje Ward Bongole Kampala, and Eastern Region Bugiri District Muwayo Town Council.
Nakivale currently hosts 119,587 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Although many refugees in the area have been living there for several years, recent conflicts in nearby countries are increasing the number of arrivals per day. The settlement is divided into 79 villages with an average of 800 to 1,000 people per village.
The living conditions in the Nakivale settlement vary, but, overall, they are challenging. The settlement faces issues such as overcrowding, limited access to basic services, and inadequate infrastructure. Many refugees live in small, makeshift shelters with limited or no access to clean water, sanitation facilities, and healthcare. The lack of proper housing and basic amenities poses significant challenges to the well-being and safety of the population.
Efforts have been made by UNHCR as its implementing humanitarian organizations and the Ugandan government to improve living conditions in Nakivale as well as in Uganda. Initiatives include the provision of education, healthcare, and livelihood support programs. However, the resources available often struggle to meet the needs of the large refugee population, resulting in ongoing challenges.
Assessment of the internal environment
The organization is based in the following locations:
- Main office in Kampala, Central Wakiso District Ndejje Division, Ndejje Ward, Bongole, hosted by the Living in Christ Omega Ministries (LICOM)
- Permanent office in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Base Camp
- New Hope Village, Isingiro District (We can use this location on demand.)
- Muwayo Town Council, Bugiri District (We can use this location on demand.)
YAREN counts on:
- 4 Board Members
- 5 Staff
- 8 Volunteers
We are all committed to making a positive difference in the community. Despite the nature of the hard work to be done, there is a sense of humor and camaraderie, with staff and volunteers often socializing after hours. Overall, YAREN is a dynamic and inspiring workplace, where individuals are empowered to make a real impact on the world around them.
4. Goals and Objectives
The Nakivale Refugee Settlement has several needs, which the Board of YAREN has assessed with local inhabitants, representatives of the different communities, and religious organizations. We have selected and prioritized the most important of them. Based on these selected needs, YAREN is defining the following goals and objectives.
Overall strategic goals
1. Education: we offer different levels of training / courses, starting from classes for children (library classes and storytelling, English grammar), and adults (English, computer classes, self-promotion classes, entrepreneurship, and business basics)
2. Health: in this area, we primarily act for prevention through classes and workshops specially designed for women and teenage girls, and counseling (including mental health and mama kits)
3. Water Hygiene and Sanitation: in this area, we couple prevention (through classes and workshops) with advocacy (for clean water availability) and offer kits for water filtering / sanitation.
4. Livelihood and women empowerment: women need to be active and get a sense of accomplishment for their mental health and the benefit of their families, so we will support and sustain apprentices in activities such as tailoring, hairdressing, handcrafting (handmade bags for women with different purposes), gardening / farming (including raising animals such as pigs, hens, turkeys, ducks, goats, and sheep). The production offered by tailoring and handcrafting will be taken to the next level, so those products will be exported to Western countries, which will provide self-funding for YAREN and income for the crafters.
5. Humanitarian aid and emergency response: as it often happens, we receive massive numbers of people to be helped right away or we must face emergencies due to epidemic events (see COVID-19). In all those cases, YAREN will be present to help at its best effort.
Some on going activities
HANDCRAFT:
Is a program that is empowering 16 teen mothers, adding a new design like a basket, pannier of clothes, or trivet… they are learning from Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9 am to 12 pm using the fibers as materials.
After learning they will be empowered by creating for their jobs and giving them a place of work as designers selling their creations so that they can sustain their life, at now 29 handbags are available produced by the learners, at now there is a challenges of the materials as the fibers to continue the learning, somebags and achieved, a learning session of 6 months and there will be a graduation with certificates.
TAILORING:
15 teen mothers are getting empowered in tailoring in collaboration with Lebanon Community Development Center, and yet they have yet spent they one month, by promoting their jobs and the place of work where they will be creating a new design different from other tailors in Nakivale like pillows in kitenge for bedroom and sitting rooms and curtains in kitenge selling so that they can sustain their life, we are looking for them a kickstarter machines after their training of six months, learning from Monday to Friday.
For example curtains and pillows
- ENGLISH FOR ADULT:
- they 35 learners teen moms are taking class in the level 1B, 15 men and teen moms are learning in morning class, have been separated as Level 1A and Level 1B; Level 1A are starting at 10 am to 12 pm every Monday to Friday
Level 1B starts from 4 pm to 6 pm every Monday to Friday, all in the period of 6 months.
Library : There are 30 children are taking knowledge through reading books that help them to better read every monday to friday from 2pm to 4pm , children from 6 up 12 years old
- TRAINING IN MENTAL HEALTH, MENSTRUAL HYGIENE, COUNSELING, AND STORYTELLING, The reason why we decided to make a training
- Creating a better society for high-risk communities is our vision.
- Fight for early marriage
- Prevent infectious diseas es from menstrual
- Fight against mental health
- Fight against the increasing number of teen mothers
We want to train children from 11 to 17 years about the consequences of early marriage, personal hygiene, and sexual violence .
Train teen mothers from 13 to 17 years on how to bring change in the community by training them at school about counseling, early marriage, sexual violence, how to prevent an expected pregnancy, and storytelling, to orient them to create a better society .
we have 19 schools that we want to attend for training:
- Bright international kashojwa
- Changia Africa center
- Sangano light s.d.a p/s
- Sangano bright future p/s
- War child Canada
- Hope center
- Nuru Nursery and p/s
- Standard Nursery and p/s
- Islamic qubaa
- Victory p/s
- Kabazana p/s
- Misiera p/s
- Rubondo p/s
- Nyarugugu p/s
- Siri school p/s
- Kitiaza p/s
- Success roots
- Innovation School
We will take 20 children per each school in five schools, we will train 100 children, and the program will take 6 month
In 6 months, we want to achieve the goal of creating a better society for high-risk community
STEP OF ACTIVITIES
ACHIEVEMENT OF ACTIVITY
STEP 1
We will visit the schools and their directors so that we can plan how the training will be going
STEP 2
We will start the training with children from 11 to 17 years about the consequences of early marriage, menstrual hygiene, and how to prevent pregnancy. The training will be taking 2 hours per school. We will train 2 days per week in those 3 months by providing them with small motivation, eg: sweets, biscuits, etc after training.
STEP 3
We will start the training with teen mothers from 15 to 17 years old about early marriage, mental health, counseling, and storytelling. We will train 2 days per week in each school. This will take 3 months.
Liquid soap:
25 women have been trained on entrepreneurship and are making liquid soap in Kampala, we are looking to make the same activity that will be provided to women in Nakivale Refugee settlement and some interested YAREN team members will benefit from it, this activity will bring some income for staff members, they will be doing it, then selling it in public places. The liquid soap will also help with cleaning at YAREN ( toilets, houses, and schools ), Home Gardens project, 15 youth men are gain skilling program, all in entrepreneurship program.
To have some achievement here is our small documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OnCOeEifXg&t=4s
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BJNZRnVsY4nzRE8NUmK8DL0-XDqmaTUP/edit#gid=1711456565 here is some steps towards our financial illustration as a need at now
