Our Comprehensive Programs
MWIFO Uganda’s activities are designed to address critical needs and foster sustainable development across multiple interconnected areas.
Our approach is holistic, recognizing that education, health, economic stability, and social equity are all crucial for communities to thrive. We work closely with local groups to implement projects that are community-driven and tailored to specific needs.
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As a result of poverty, civil strife, child abuse, domestic violence, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, family care in Uganda has been placed under severe strain, leading to falling standards in the care and education of children. Thousands of orphans and vulnerable children lack means to attain basic education, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
MWIFO Uganda is deepening its commitment to education through its Child Sponsorship and Social Support programme. Students receive school fees, uniforms, scholastic materials, and sometimes food assistance for child-headed families. We adapt to individual needs, offering vocational training for youth who missed primary education, enabling them to earn an income.
The objective is to promote child development within a supportive family and community, aiming for universal education, improved health, HIV/AIDS education, increased child rights, and better childcare services.
Sustainable community development helps improve children’s quality of life hence providing training tools may be all it takes to help community break out of poverty and become self sufficient. That’s why MWIFO Uganda partners with organised members of the community, faith-based organisations, community-based organisations, clubs and associations to support community-based projects in agriculture, vocational training and primary education, health care, sanitation and micro-enterprise development among poor and underprivileged members of society. Together, we extend the gift of hope to the street, orphaned and other vulnerable children.
Implemented Activities:
- Advocated for children rights.
- Sponsored street, orphans and other vulnerable children in mainstream education, offered literacy classes, vocational training and basic skill classes for the youth.
- Re-united street children with their families or linked them to foster homes.
- Linked needy children and youth to beneficial programs and services.
- Offered counseling to children, youth and families on various social issues.
- Sensitised communities on vital issues like family planning, sanitation, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, immunization and health care.
- Liaised with local churches for spiritual care and pastoral counseling.
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The goal is to achieve sustainable improvements in health status among vulnerable groups, especially the geographically remote, women of childbearing age, youth, and children under five. We promote improvements in basic health services while enabling communities to adopt effective health practices.
At MWIFO UGANDA we believe that, health is more than health care. While the organisation works to strengthen community health systems and services, it also very much promotes initiatives that offer people the knowledge and skills to avoid illness. These measures include educating women and girls and enabling families to adopt appropriate hygiene practices. In addition the organisation supports testing and implementation of income-generating strategies that allow households and communities to acquire better nutrition and health status. Increased incomes enable communities to improve nutritional status, particularly that of women and children, and to build and maintain water and sanitation systems.
All these issues are complicated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has touched millions of people in Uganda, leaving death and desperation in its wake. Entire villages have been laid to waste as the devastating effects of the epidemic have been aided through the traditional rural lifestyle of subsistence farming. As Household members fall ill, families lose their means to not only provide themselves with food but also to make any form of income. This leads to poverty, and with it malnutrition and ill health. Very many children have been forced to go to the streets, abused or remained as orphans, and although many are taken into other homes as part of an extended family, this places a huge strain on such households. There are school fees, medical expenses, clothes, as well as food, and for many people who are still living off the land this provides an insurmountable burden.
The combination of HIV/AIDS-related deaths and climbing infant mortality rates has meant a drop in life expectance from 50 to 47 years since 1990, according to the World Bank. The statistics are disheartening to say the least. Meanwhile, the health systems meant to address these myriads challenges are deteriorating. This is a critical moment for all that view equitable health care in Uganda as an achievable goal.
Because health touches every aspect of a person’s life, colouring the ability to work and study, to participate in family and community, and to contribute to society, MWIFO Uganda’s programmes in the health sector are designed around three core objectives: Health education and sensitisation for families and communities; Support and development of community health centres/clinics; Improvement and strengthening of basic health services.
MWIFO UGANDA believes that this global view of health care is essential if any project is to give rise to lasting change. In recent years, Uganda has been hailed as the success story of human intervention against HIV/AIDS. However, AIDS is still the leading killer of adults in Uganda, and an estimated 1.5 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. The struggle is far from over. MWIFO UGANDA works in four main areas related to HIV/AIDS: awareness campaigns, prevention and education, involving voluntary counselling and testing, prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), home best care, support to families infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, and educational support to the orphans left behind. In reality, all these areas are inter-linked, working together to increase awareness and to strengthen the society’s ability to care for its most vulnerable members. MWIFO UGANDA hopes to meet the increasing demand by strengthening voluntary counselling and testing services at its HIV/AIDS clinic at the MWIFO UGANDA head offices and by encouraging greater community participation in referral and care.
Implemented Activities:
- Supported orphans and needy children with school fees and materials.
- Helped communities run sex education workshops.
- Distributed free condoms and HIV/AIDS awareness posters.
- Provided nurses and counsellors for HIV/AIDS related health problems.
- Assisted communities to build health clinics and pharmacies.
- Introduced mobile outreach and central volunteer programmes for VCT.
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A high proportion of the people we work with are subsistence farmers with very low incomes. The range of needs that these communities have varies considerably but generally involves some need to generate income to be able to afford the “luxuries” in life such as clothes, or an education for their children.
MWIFO UGANDA mobilises local communities to form centre groups, which are best, placed to assist those within the community who are really struggling. The centre members pool their money in form of membership fees and this is loaned to members of the community to invest in small income generation projects. This method has helped many communities implement hundreds of micro finance projects.
Local people own and implement the projects. MWIFO UGANDA simply provides funding through proposal applications, expertise, monitoring and evaluation. Our role is to empower local communities in the fight against poverty. We support only projects that lead people to reorganise their strength, take control of their resources and work together to meet their needs.
To minimise the risk of dependency, we fund projects with low capital costs and high volunteer involvement. Project participants set the goals they want to reach to make the most of the help they receive. Particular attention is given to the needs of women and children; we find that women always share what they learn with their families thus spreading up the pace of change in their community.
The ultimate goal of this programme is to develop a person’s capacity to take responsibility for his or her own life, while strengthening the social networks people relies on for support. MWIFO UGANDA emphasizes a method of working with people rather than doing for. This approach fosters the growth of community and promotes partnership at all levels.
Implemented Activities:
- Sponsored centre members to attend seminars and workshops in business and project management.
- Provided financial support for the establishment of hundreds of micro finance projects (piggeries, poultry, farming, stores, etc.).
- Provided professional advice for key aspects of micro finance projects requiring them.
- Assisted communities to find additional funding for their programmes through donor proposals.
- Provided economic security to orphans and vulnerable children via micro loans.
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MWIFO Uganda actively advocates for human rights and promotes gender balance within communities. We understand that true sustainable development requires equitable opportunities and voices for all members of society, particularly women and marginalized groups.
Our advocacy efforts include raising awareness on rights, supporting initiatives that challenge discriminatory practices, and working to ensure women have equal access to resources, education, and decision-making processes. We also provide counseling and social support services to families, aiming to build resilience and address issues stemming from inequality or social vulnerability. This holistic approach helps create stronger, more equitable communities.
Implemented Activities:
- Raising awareness on human rights and gender issues.
- Supporting community dialogues on gender balance.
- Providing counseling related to social support and family well-being.
- Partnering with local leaders to promote inclusive practices.