Hello precious! Warm greetings from everyone here at Youth With A Vision to you over there! It is a month ago since we last talked to you, and we hope you and your family are still safe and well. We thank God for safely seeing us and you through the past month of July 2020! We thank you so much for your generous donations, sponsorship and support to our vital work with the disadvantaged children and youth here in Uganda! We are glad to bring to you our vote of thanks for investing in our mission even when the times are still hard for everyone! Many new things have happened, from receiving new donations from new friends and supporters, to increased ''likes'' on our Facebook page, and this has been because of your involvement and efforts of spreading our work across the globe! Thank you! and please this is the full list of how your generous donations, sponsorship and support has enabled us to make tremendous accomplishments during the past month of July 2020. We hope you will be inspired by this update.
Thanks to your donation and support - we make sure that less privileged children get food to eat and have access to good sanitation
Despite the fact that lockdown is easing, many daily income families are still struggling to get food on the table. This is because they have not yet been able to get an income. During this month we have been able to extend relief of food and sanitisers to more families that have been made vulnerable by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown! Most of the families that have benefited from the food relief during the last month are those taking care of children who are directly under our programmes including the Feeding Programme. In total, we have provided food and liquid soap to 580 people including 86 children on our program all staying in 116 families. Without your help, this would be hard for us to accomplish. So we once again thank you so much for your continued support which is enabling us to reach less privileged families, children, and youth. Please get details on the impact of our feeding programme upon the children and families in Masaka. Please enjoy seeing some of the photos on the recent food distribution. We also invite you to read more about the impact of our feeding program. and how you can get involved.
Thanks and stories from some of the beneficiaries
''My name is Nassimbwa Fatumah, I am a mother of 11 children. Because of COVID, I and my husband who is a local carpenter lost his job. We have been struggling to get food for all our children on the table. But thanks for your help, all our children are able to get something to eat and don't need to starve. When life improves and the rains come, I will be able to cultivate our small piece of land and grow food for our family'' Fatumah a mother of 11 children (some are not in this picture) is among the many mothers who are struggling to provide food for their children every day. Before the Covid-19 outbreak Youth With A Vision had enrolled only 4 of Fatumah's children on the feeding and education programs. After COVID-19 we added only one child to make it to 5 children whom we provide food during these hard times. However, with your help, we can feed the other 6 children and also support this family to become sustainable. We still need your support to continue providing food and essentials, please. Donate if you can on www.youthwithavision.info/donate
Thank you from Christine.''
I am Nanyonga Christine. I am the eldest of my 5 siblings. My mother is a housewife while my father used to wash cars and provide food for us. But after the coming of Covid-19, he lost his job and the already bad changed to worse for our family. Sometimes my father goes out to look for food and fails to get it and we go to bed hungry. I am so happy that we now have food to eat and soap to wash our hands like other families! Thank you for your caring heart. May God bless you''
You have helped Brenda to pickup her business after it was shattered by the pandemic
Although we are still in the lockdown due to Covid-19 that has not stopped us from helping youth. During the past month of July 2020, through our Youth Finance Scheme, we have been providing support and interest-free stimulus loans to youth whose business collapsed due to the lockdown, to help them get back on their feet. Brenda Nabuuma is one of the youth we have supported. We gave Brenda business redesigning skills, reconnected her with a mentor, and provided her with a loan of £223 ($286) (€278) (UGX: 1,000,000 - One Million Uganda Shillings) to re-invent her second-hand shoes and cosmetics enterprises in Masaka town. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, Brenda's enterprises was just two years old. She was effectively and promptly paying back loan installments. But as the pandemic intensified things changed, Brenda's potential customers declined, others relocated, as populations were more focused on food and shelter than any other thing. So shoes were no longer selling and the landlord needed rental fees which Brenda did not have. However, with the stimulus interest-free loan, Brenda is optimistic about a successful second-hand shoes and cosmetics enterprise, to give her an income and be able to take good care of her parents and her siblings. Thank you all for investing in our mission. We hope it will inspire you to hear that youth like Brenda has been supported to regain their employment lost to COVID-19. Sadly because of our limited resources, we can't help all youth in need of support to boost or start their own employment without your help. Therefore, we are seeking your continued support to enable us to reach out to more youth who are still struggling to regain and or start their own employment. Empowering youth to stimulate or kickstart their own enterprises is the key to snatch them out of poverty and protecting them against crime and violence associated with poverty.
We have helped Prossie to write a proper business plan
At the beginning of this month of July 2020, Prossie Nakasirye a school dropout, and an unemployed young mother visited our office while crying and feeling hopeless because she had failed to secure stable employment. She wanted Youth With A Vision to support and fund her to start up her own small Restaurant enterprise to improve her condition of life. Prossy explained to us that she does not know any clear information about her father and relatives because she grew up at Kitaasa village, in Bukomansimbi district, with her maternal grandfather, and who had been taking care of her since her childhood.
The grandfather paid for Prossie's school fees from nursery school to university, and sadly he died when Prossie was in her second year at Kampala University - Masaka Campus and Prossie dropped out and did not complete with her Bachelor's Degree in Education as at this time there was no one willing to pay for the cost of her education. After dropping out of the University, Prossie started doing od jobs for survival. Along the way, Prossie got pregnant and delivered a baby boy. However, things worsened for her as her spouse could not take good care of her and their newly born baby. Therefore prossie developed an idea of starting her own job, but she had no capital to do this. So she decided to look for finances so that she creates her own job. Prossie narrates that she moved from one banking institution to another seeking a loan but all turned her applications down because she didn't have the collateral (including a land title and driving license) required to access a loan. After failing to access a loan from the banking institutions, Prossie turned her search for capital to start a business on the internet, and eventually landed on Youth With A Vision's Youth Finance Scheme. Then Prossie came to us with her business ideas, we helped her to write a proper business plan, provided her with a business mentor, and now she needs funds for a business internship and to implement her enterprise. Can you help Prossie to create her own enterprise today? Prossie needs £445, $572, €556, UGX: 2,000,000, for a business internship, materials and equipment to start a small Coffee Restaurant, in Misaali Hill, Nyendo Masaka so that she can earn an income and be able to take care of her baby, her young brother, and her incapacitated mother who stays alone in Kitaasa village in Bukomansimbi district. We appreciate so much all your generous support, and If you can, please donate today on www.youthwithavision.info/donate to support Prossie and others on the Youth Finance Scheme to regain and kickstart their own employment. Any contribution will add
up to help the struggling youth to get back on their feet. Read more about the Youth Finance Scheme on www.youthwithavison.info/youth-finance-scheme Thank you
Thank you for helping students to study from home during COVID-19 lockdown
In Uganda Homeschooling is accessible to children with access to the internet, computer, television, and radio. But sadly only 3 in 10 children can have access to these learning channels. The government of Uganda has not yet indicated the date when schools should open. We understand that the government is worried about the risk of re-opening schools under the prevalence of the pandemic. And because we have experienced first-hand that, the more time children stay redundant at home, the more they are exposed to many negative concepts and behaviors. Thanks to your support, at Youth With A Vision we are still continuing to occupy the children until the time when the environment is favorable for schools reopen, providing them television and radio classes, and distributing self-study materials to have an education like their counterparts.
We identified teachers and linked them with students under our support in their locality. So when students find challenges with the study materials or radio or television classes, they note down these challenges and then approach the teacher for guidance and support on how to overcome the challenges.
students in Crotchet weaving We have also provided lessons in weaving and crotchet, and baking for students currently affected by the lockdown to learn vocational skills and be able to sustain themselves even if they fail to make it through the mainstream education system.
This initiative is greatly helping students to stay connected to their education ambitions and also minimize possible antisocial behaviors as a result of redundancy. And your support is still needed to keep this program running. Thank you.
Health and Human rights Advocacy
Florence and her son Pascal.
At Youth With A Vision through our human rights outreach and advocacy program, we monitor, record, report, and make referrals and follow-ups of abuse against children and youth to the authority and responsible organs of the government to take the course of justice and ensure that all young people regardless of where they come from fully exercise their rights. Before and during this period of Covid-19, communities have experienced many acts of cruelty and cases of human rights violations against children, young girls, and women.
Nantongo Florence together with son Ssempijja Pascal who was 3 months old by then, the house in which they were staying was set ablaze by her jilted husband who had got another spouse and wanted to throw Florence out of the house. When Florence refused to get out of the house, her husband, some night decided to set their house on fire while Florence and her baby were sleeping. The husband ran away and is still at large. All Florence's belongings were destroyed by fire while her baby Pascal was rescued with serious damages - his entire right-hand side was badly burnt and damaged by fire. And as a result of fire Pascal's right hand was imputed! Florence together with her ailing baby abandoned their house looking for shelter and medication of Pascal. Since then Pascal continued to live under pain and Florence has walked into one hospital to another looking for help with healing of her baby but in vain because she doesn't have the money needed to do the proper examination on her baby. Finally, Pascal was referred to Entebbe Hospital but because Florence has no money, the poor innocent boy continues to live under much pain.
Currently, Florence works as a housemaid in exchange for shelter, and sometimes she does laundry to survive and doesn't earn much to pay for the cost of her child's medication. She also lacks essential commodities and clothes as she has one dress of which she washes, squeezes, and wears it again and immediately. Youth With A Vision has been providing food to Florence but her baby - Pascal is in great recurring pain and needs to be properly examined by a doctor to see the gravity of the damage fire caused to him, and to deflect further damage to his sensory system and to find a remedy for his condition of life.
Currently, £445 ($572) (€556) (UGX:2,000,0000) is needed to facilitate Pascal's proper examination. If you or someone you know can help please donate now on https://www.youthwithavision.info/donate
Watch Florence and her son Pascal in one of the live videos with our staff
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=602792127042355
Please get involved today
Please support us through GlobalGiving Accelerator Programme
We have been accepted for the September 2020 GlobalGiving Accelerator Program, where we seek to raise donations globally for “Building 2 Classrooms to support quality and affordable education for over 700 vulnerable children at our partner schools – ST. Catherine Nursery and Primary School Kisaalizi in Kyotera District and Aunt Sarah Junior School in Rakai District in Uganda.
The GlobalGiving Accelerator Programme is a virtual training program and crowdfunding campaign that helps organizations like ours (Youth With A Vision) to connect with donors, nonprofits and companies in nearly every country around the world.
Organizations that raise over $5,000 from at least 40 donors during the September 2020 Accelerator Crowdfunding Campaign will earn:
Permanent fundraising spot on the GlobalGiving platform, with the ability to crowdfund several other projects.
Inclusion in a GlobalGiving press release Additional promotion opportunities through GlobalGiving's donor newsletter and social media
A custom media kit to help promote accomplishments
A certificate of completion from GlobalGiving
A share of $20,000+ in bonus prizes and incentive funds.
A bonus prize for most funds raised and most unique donors granted to projects raising at least $5,000 from 40 unique donors.
We want to graduate from the Accelerator Programme and win that permanent spot as well as the bonus prizes which will enable us to enrich our capacity to plan and carry out online crowdfunding and other marketing and fundraising campaigns. This is the Major Challenge ahead of us To graduate, we have to raise at least $5,000 total from a minimum of 40 different donors. So when this campaign comes out, we want to appeal to you and everyone to help us out. No amount is too small! The more the merrier!
Help Youth With A Vision to own a motorcycle so that we can have a breakthrough with pressing daily transport demands.
Now than ever before, we need our own motorcycle which has been a big hindrance to our food and essentials emergency distribution to vulnerable populations here at Masaka Uganda. Lack of own transport means has always been a major barrier to reaching hard to reach and distant places. However, this time around it has greatly affected our food and essentials emergency distribution. Each time we have to do door to door distribution of food and essentials we have to hire and this takes a toll on our meager resources. Buying our own motorcycle will not only help to minimize or offset transport costs but will also help to relocate transport hire expenses to food and effectively transport sick children and pregnant women in emergency situations to health centres, food, and sanitisers to vulnerable families and self-study materials for students to access education during the lockdown, through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. However, we can't achieve this without your help. If you can please donate to enable us to have a breakthrough with a motorcycle. We have already spotted this nice motorcycle at £1,100 (€1,320) ($1,400) UGX: (4,950,000). If you or your friends are able to contribute please make donations on www.youthwithavision.info/donate and comment "motorcycle"
Become a friend of Youth With A Vision Friends of Youth with a Vision are active members contributing £25 to £1000 annually. Joining as a friend you will receive a personalized membership card and updates about our work for you to read and evaluate. Friends are recognized by their subscription categories as;
£1000 Steward
£500 Samaritan
£250 Ambassador
£50 Bridge
£25Visionary
Buy from Our Online Shop youthwithavision.info/shop and Gift Catalog
https://www.youthwithavision.info/gift-catalog are great places to pick up lots of great gift merchandise for you, your friends and family, all of which are just another way that you can make our vital work with the vulnerable children, youth and families possible. Most of these merchandises are made by children and youth on the program! Participate in this year's Dine So They Can Day On Saturday 3rd October It is an annual fundraising day where friends and supporters around the world help to host a meal or do something in their community or donate or ask their networks to donate to raise funds for the work of Youth With A Vision. All funds raised on this day add up and supplement our budget and also help to fund our non-sponsored projects targeting disadvantaged children and youth we work with. We warmly invite you to participate - the more the number of participants, the merrier it becomes! Please click https://www.youthwithavision.info/dinesotheycan for details, past participants and to participate.
In gratitude and solidarity, John Mugabi Founder & Director Youth With A Vision Juliet Nampanja Kizza Project Manager Youth Finance Scheme Leandrew Muleme Project Manager Children and Education