Community Integration

Community integration is one of the most important aspects of empowerment. Once you know your community and they have accepted you as one of their own, then you can really understand the needs of your community and what will sustainably benefit them as a whole. This is one of the goals of Peace Corps and is something each volunteer holds close to their heart. By learning the local language and joining in sports, meals, church, introduction/wedding ceremonies and any other local activity volunteers gain a position that will forever effect the lives of their community members. Once integrated into your community people are more than willing to share with you their problems and needs.

Oyster mushroom growing is an income generating activity that is cost effective and not labor intensive. It is ideal for the many Ugandans living with HIV/AIDS or housewives looking for an alternative form of income generation that they can fit into their busy lives. The market for mushrooms is increasing as word of their nutritional benefit is being spread, not to mention the demand from the ever increasing expat community. Ugandans are given a 5 day training, around 1.5 hours/day, and contact information after which they begin to grow and reap the benefits.

Wild Life Clubs

Celeste Arista and her wildlife club pose while on a field trip to one of Uganda's national forests. Students learn about the environment and wildlife as part of the club. There are many wildlife clubs throughout Uganda and they are a great way to provide students with practical hands on education that they would otherwise never receive.

Empowerment Workshop

Amber Comber's students pose for the camera as part of a life skills/empowerment workshop. Volunteers explain to their students the importance of a role model. The students then draw pictures of their role models. In similar workshops volunteers have students do goal setting, public speaking and self esteem building exercises.

Reusable Menstrual Pads

Volunteers at schools are led by Lizzie Kazan in teaching their students to make menstrual pads from locally bought, affordable, material. This allows girls with little or no income to avoid those awkward moments that often prevent them from attending classes.

Statistics

To give you some background of the need for empowerment in Uganda we thought it would be useful to provide you with some statistical data:

52% of Uganda's population is living below the international poverty line ($1.25/day)

50% of Uganda's population is age 14 or under

Life expectancy for Uganda is 52 years

HIV prevalence is at 5.4%

Literacy of the population 15 years and older is 77% for males, but only 58% for females

Fertility is at 6.7 children per household, that is the second highest in the world

50% of uneducated women age 15-19 have at least 1 child

19% of educated women 15-19 have at least 1 child

79% of educated women age 20-24 have at least one child

The average age for giving birth in Uganda is 18

By age 15 24% of females are sexually active, by 18 69% of females are sexually active, and by age 20 86% of females are sexually active

Less than 30% of sexually active adults use condoms

The majority of the population is living in the rural villages. With one of the fastest growing populations in the world it is hard to refute the need for empowerment in Uganda.

Our volunteers are providing workshops on reusable menstrual pads, life skills, STI/HIV/AIDS, paper bead making, mushroom growing, public speaking, and self esteem building among many other activities.

We Believe

We at GAD believe that development begins with empowerment on the community level. Thus, our priority is to provide volunteers, along with other individuals, working in the communities of Uganda with resources to empower their friends and neighbors. The resources that we can provide range from small scale to large scale projects: community integration, income generation, countrywide girls' empowerment camps.