G-792

Economic & Comm. Devt 2

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Financing

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Project Description

Region: Africa

Country: Uganda

Location: Wakiso

Total Budget: $53,609

Area of Focus: Community economic development



Objectives of project.

Our objective is to provide a holistic and transformational community service to enhance good health, self-reliance and peace among the targeted poor, marginalized women, children and men.

This Initiative aims to:

1. Enhance basic skills in farming practices, brick making, livestock management and micro businesses.

2. Support programs that promote value addition of the farmers' produce, processing and marketing

3. Promote employment through the provision of opportunities for vocational training

4. Construct a vocational training school

This project is a component of an adopt a village concept that we have developed in this area. Other areas of focus covered are Water & Sanitation, Maternal & Child Health and Economic & Community Development.

This project is a component of an adopt a village concept that we have developed in this area. Other areas of focus covered are Water & Sanitation, Maternal & Child Health and Basic Education & Literacy.

Beneficiaries.

An estimated population of 7,728 - 1,952 households in 8 villages. Of the estimated population, 52% are women, 16% children less than 4 years of age and only 8% of the population is above age group 45 years. 57% of the youth between 15-24 years are illiterate and over 321 never attended school. Furthermore, 68% of the youth (1,720) dropped out from primary school, 45% (455) dropped out from secondary school. 25% of the children less than 18 years of age do not attend school.

Community needs.

Poverty in this underserved community of Lukwanga Parish is escalating where (90%) of households now live below the poverty line. The main occupation is farming with (60-80%) of households dependent on subsistence farming. Ntinda/ Kyebere village has the highest number of farmers. Farming is soon becoming extinct as the land is being fragmented and farmers have no basic skills in farming practices to avert this problem. In addition the community needs assessment points to lack of value addition, processing and marketing knowledge by the farmers.

Over (60%) of the farmers receive little or no income. Luggi village is worst hit averaging a mere Ushs 10,000 a month closely followed by Muyenje and Lukwanga villages earning less than a dollar a day. The daily income is on average Ushs (800) or USD (0.31 cents).

Other occupations include brick making, livestock and micro businesses. However, mixed farming is the most economic or productive activity and income levels may average around Ushs. 150,000 ($60) a month depending on the season, over 20% of women are now engaged in this activity. Where products like milk and meat are marketable and consumed, farmers are more likely to fetch higher incomes.

Savings at the household level in a month average Ushs 1000 ($0.40), purportedly dedicated for school fees and medical care. Villages such as Muyenje, Lukwanga and Nabukalu experience the worst saving levels. Such savings are too low and not sustainable for community development.

The community leaders and RCC members, lack the capacity to support economic development in the impoverished community. The local leaders acknowledge that their inability to lead the youth to productive careers has led an estimated (70%) to redundancy. Ntinda/Kyebere village has the highest number of redundant youth.

In addition, the lack of opportunities for productive work has compelled the youth to spend their time gambling, playing games and drinking. Where vocational training opportunities lack in schools and no institutions in the area provides for vocational training this has led to increased levels of unskilled youth.

About the youth

The youth make up 80% of the population in Lukwanga parish. Gimbo and Muyeneje villages constitute the majority of youth where they make up 70% and 60% of the population respectively. Luggi village also has a relatively high population of youth where every four in ten is a youth.

57% of the youth between 15-24 years of ages are illiterate in the villages of Lukwanga, Ntinda/Kyebere, Muyenje, Nabukalu and Gimbo and 321 never attended school.

Typically around 68% drop out from primary school and never graduate. Where 2543 youth enrolled in primary school only 823 graduated from primary school.

The majority were from Lukwanga and Nabukalu village

Only less than 10% of students graduated from primary school in Luggi and Gimbo villages with just less than 20% in Muyenje.

Less than half of the students 45% drop out from secondary school. Of the 823 that started secondary school 368 graduated from secondary school.

Lukwanga, Ntinda/Kyebere and Gimbo village had the highest drop outs with over 90% of the students, followed by Nabukalu and Luggi village with 50-60%

Where there is the least drop out counting for 22% in Muyenje village it has two secondary schools. It can be concluded that the mere fact that there are no secondary schools in the other villages contributes to the high drop out.

Only less than 1% make it to college or university i.e Luggi and Gimbo villages have not succeeded in having a university graduate from their village.

Whereas from the other villages only a handful reached university, 4 in Muyenje, 10 in Ntinda 5 in Nabukalu and 6 in Lukwanga.

Lukwanga Parish youth are mostly secondary school leavers with limited vocational skills. The youth are engaged in mostly temporarily or seasonal work where approximately:

25% of the youth population are into brick making

10% are boda boda (motorcycle) motorists

10% are into micro trading

5% are engaged in porter work,

While more than 40% tend to small scale farming.

It was observed that one of the biggest challenges in all the villages within Lukwanga parish were the youth. The common problems were drugs, alcohol and early pregnancy.

The positive aspect of this community is the initiative of the formation of special groups i.e women groups. However, the women groups lack the capacity to support economic development as evidently; the groups lack the knowledge of the technical aspects in group formation and leadership skills to move on. There are opportunities for growth where special groups exist, approx 14 groups, but regrettably most are not functional.

Access to financial services for the poor is absent impacting on especially women groups who have ventured into mixed farming.

The lack of capacity of entrepreneurs, local organizations, and community networks has been impeded by the lack of power in Lukwanga Village. Where this is most felt is at the Lukwanga community knowledge centre. Environmental Alert (EA) in collaboration with Arid Land Information Network (ALIN), a Kenya based nongovernmental organization, came up with an initiative to promote exchange of ideas and experience among local communities in Uganda and Arid lands in Eastern Africa at large. As part of the initiative, in October 2007a community knowledge centre was set up in Lukwanga parish

This is a community facility where members of the community share information and ideas which is developmental for improvement of livelihoods. Information shared involves district, sub-county, agriculture, educational, markets, local innovations, market, business and any other information that is of value to the community.

The right to information enables individuals to have access to all kinds of information and knowledge needed in there day today lives. Lukwanga community knowledge centre has seven computers that should be applied as an empowerment to the community in computer literacy and ICT development for children and adults. Due to lack of power the computing facilities remain un-utilized. The centre does not have its own premises and rents a room. The idea was to solicit income from secretarial bureau services to maintain the center but the issue of lack of power has meant the center has not been resourceful for a year.

Lukwanga parish is a poor community without electricity. There are dependent on paraffin for lighting and firewood and coal for cooking. Moreover, the excessive use of biomass for cooking has placed ongoing pressure on the natural resources, including forest reserves.

Where forests are depleted, the community struggles to use the little that may be available and in whatever condition. Affordability for alternative energy sources is also a challenge.

Our inventions shall involve;

- achieving increased income levels of the Lukwanga community to over Ushs 150,000/= per month

- achieving increased monthly household savings to a higher level from the current level of Ushs 1000/=

- promoting youth employment through the provision of opportunities for vocational training leading to increased levels of skilled youth;

Interventions.

Intervention 1: Reducing poverty

This aims to demonstrate sustainable agricultural development for subsistence farmers, provide access to financing for women groups and other businesses, encourage growth of businesses, support income generating activities and use of alternative energy sources.

- Improving nutritional needs specifically for children under the age of five. (Sustainable agricultural development) through;

• exposure to improved farming activities

• training in soil & water management - construction of trap ponds

• training in value addition in food security - converting food and Procurement of 2 portable triddle pumps

- Business development. Our focus will be on mixed farming to support its growth through market and quality development as it is the most economic or productive activity by the community in terms of the amounts and by gender. A study on business assessment and business development strategies for business growth will be done to assess the needs for this sector.

- Access to financial services (micro loans)

- Income generating activities;

• This activity intends to target schools where financial needs have impacted on the delivery of access to basic education. Good Hope School, Gimbo primary school, Nabukalu and Syllabus school, will be supported in tailoring of school uniforms for their students and poultry as an income generating activity to respond to i) improved nutrition for the children ii) provision of scholastic materials and text books iii) improved infrastructure iv) sustainability of activities.

• Procurement of 4 sewing machines

• Construction of the pens will be done by the community with material support from the Club. There will five pens for five schools.

• Each school will be provided with 500 chicks and 10 bags of chicken feed

- Greening; We will promote greening through tree planting and to attain environmental health and well-being in the project areas. This should improve on soil erosion, improve on the markedly absence of trees in the community, provide access to fuel wood, reduce on climate change, protect the homesteads from relentless winds , provide resources for establishments of homes, provide financial resources and medicinal herbs among others.

- Promoting alternative energy sources through sensitization of the use of briquettes and supporting the introduction of briquettes production and clean cooking stoves in the parish.

Intervention 2: Developing opportunities for productive work

The club will scale up interventions through training, related to economic and community development. Vocational training will provide new ways of generating income away from agriculture for this community and do away with youth redundancy.

- Formation of special groups; We intend to support the formation of youth, women and farmers groups, for purposes of collective marketing, providing the members with skills and capacity building. By encouraging social group formation a sense of team work and togetherness will be created as they work for a common agenda.

- Provide vocational training. Vocational training has the ability to uplift the welfare of the community by providing basic skills. We intend to do this by:

• provide basic skills to primary school students where (70%) of the children fail to progress to secondary school.

• introduce vocational training in Nabukulu primary school, Good Hope primary school, Gimbo primary school, Lubiri High school, Kamya Memorial primary school and Sofia Muslim primary school

• select teachers for training purposely to conduct vocational training in their respective schools in areas of candle making, sculpturing, clay products, handicrafts items that are considered essential with a potential market outlet

• provide training of youth groups i) in book keeping ii) re-cycling and reusing of waste with a view of creating wealth from waste e.g. making bags or baskets from maize or matooke (bananas) peels, beads etc

Other envisaged areas include carpentry, handicrafts, weaving, tailoring, and brick production using environmentally friendly methods

Intervention 3: Community infrastructure projects

- Installation of Solar Power at the community centre. The community centre was set up to gather and disseminate information to the community, enlighten and empower the community in computer literacy, act as a networking centre and to solicit income for income generating activities. The centre is headed by a focal group. With the installation of solar power to the centre i) 1153 students from five villages will become computer literate, ii) ably address information needs specifically for the entrepreneurs and iii) encourage students to train in computer skills

Intervention 4: Building the capacity of entrepreneurs, community leaders, local organizations, and community networks to support economic development in impoverished communities;

- Construction of a vocational institute

- Training of Local Leaders and RCC members. The local leaders and RCC members expressed the need to be trained and exposed in leadership skills and the awareness of the Rotary clubs objectives, roles and responsibilities. Exchange programs for local leaders and RCCs where the Rotarians are active will be implemented and beneficial during implementation of this project. Awareness of the objectives and roles of the Rotary club will empower the leaders in implementing of the projects.

- Training of trainers. To sustain the economic and community development of Lukwanga parish, we intend to train 20 entrepreneurs in different areas of activities. They will be selected from each of the villages in the parish.

PROJECT C

Local Currency: Ushs. Exchange Rate to 1 USD 2,500

No. Description

Qty Supplier Category Local Cost (Shs) Cost in USD

1. Sewing Machine (VT4 & IGA 4)

8 Equipment 4,000,000= 1,600

2. Vocational Training equipment Supplies 6,500,000= 2,600

3. Installation of Solar Power Equipment 6,500,000= 2,600

Others:

- Business Development

- Micro Finance Seed Money Training

3,100,000=

20,000,000=

1,240

8,000

Total 33,600,000 16,040

PROJECT D

Local Currency: Ushs. Exchange Rate to 1 USD 2,500

No. Description

Qty Supplier Category Local Cost (Shs) Cost in USD

1. Construction of the Vocational Institute Civil Works 93,923,000

37,569

Total 93,923,000 37,569

Primary Host Partner

District: 9211

Rotary Club of: Kampala-Central

Primary Contact: Lydia Bujara

Email: lbujara@gmail.com

Primary International Partner

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Project Status

Dropped
This project has been "Dropped". Check the history log entries to see why it was dropped.

Project listed for the 2017-18 Rotary Year.

Proposed Financing

Existing Contributions Towards This Project

Date

Cash

DDF

Total

There are no contributions yet for this project.

Remaining Amount to Raise

Additional Club Contribution (Needed) - Add a contribution

$35,740

-

$35,740

Amount Requested from The Rotary Foundation

$17,870

$0

$17,869

Total

$53,609

Note: as of July 1, 2015 there is a 5% additional support fee for cash contributions. This fee does not appear in the financials above because it does not apply if the funds are sent directly to the project account (without going through TRF, and therefore without Paul Harris credit). Clubs sending their cash contribution to TRF must be aware they will have to send an additional 5%.

Project Supporting Documents


[16-Jul-14]
Needs Assessment

 

Project Photos


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History Log Entries

16-Jul-14

System Entry

Creation of project page.

2-Sep-18

System Entry

System Entry: Project dropped per lack of response to the carry-over notification emails.

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