Thank you for your kindness in supporting YOUTH WITH A VISION and above all, during these hard times of the COVID-19 pandemic! Since your donation, you became part of an incredible family of amazing people who took action to defeat COVID-19 and help heal communities! And together, you said no to fear and said yes to global solidarity, so far raising more than £2,245 ($2,886) (€2,694) (UGX: 10,102,500) of £15,000 ($19,286) (€18,000) (UGX: 67,500,000) initial target, and in-kind donations of 200kg of maize flour, 100kg of beans, 10kg of salt and 10 litres of sanitizers for supporting individuals who lost their jobs and populations most at risk due to the pandemic. From providing sanitizers to stop the spread of COVID-19, and food for children, youth, individuals and families who are at risk of anger due to the lockdown to distributing self-study materials for students to access education in their homes, the capacity of your collective compassion is truly amazing!
There is nothing we can say that will express how incredibly grateful we are to you. But from the bottom of our hearts; A huge thank you from everyone here at Youth With A Vision to Andrew Hince, Nantale Kitali, Allen Pennell Lule, Sam Hince, Namugenyi Barbra, Marian Liebmann, Scott Callander, Steve Lambe, Simona Gentile, Maureen Hince, Phil Sutcliffe, Marjolein Soederhuizen, Chay Target, Ash Jaswal, Thelwell Alton, Emma Brown, Marjorie Forrest, Robin Harvey, Helen Spencer, Caroline Hargreaves, Gemma Fletcher, Joseph Varey, Senior Fred, Helen Wall, Jennifer Morrison, Graham Young, Monica Campbell, Annette McArthur, Patrick Ryan, Michael Jennings, Scott Douglas, Dee Verdia, Nora Anderson, Dr. Andrew Mugenyi, Kenneth Fraser, Helen Mugenyi Nabbosa, Melanie Mitchell, Heather Swailes, Eleanor Doswora, Jenny Edlington, Paul Kennedy, Chris Ssimbwa, Julia Bush, Camille Parke, Helen Adshead, Martine Shackerley, Ella Oates, Jennifer Clapham, Emily Umupfasoni, Alison Dodd, Miss C S Dick, Karen Dove and Uganda Marathon. for investing in our mission. The work isn’t done yet, but we have accomplished a lot which we could not have done without you. Thank you for continuing to think of others even as you and your loved ones are touched by the impact of this pandemic. Because of your support Youth With A Vision continue to support the vulnerable children, youth and families under and outside our care lost jobs, at risk of anger, as well as students needing to keep connecting with their education. And, as you continue to care for your family and community, here are the highlights of the accomplishments your donations and support have made possible and work being carried out right now to defeat COVID-19.
ACTIONS WE HAVE AND WE ARE TAKING.
We are distributing food to vulnerable families
Since early March 2020 we are distributing food door- to – door to populations affected by the lockdown due to COVID-19. We created an inventory of 1,000 families (5 persons per family thus 5,000 people) most at risk of anger. And so far we have already provided food to 550 people staying in 110 families in the Greater Masaka area of Uganda. During March to mid-April 2020, we typically provided food to 10 families weekly, but since then the demand has increased, we are now helping over 15 families weekly. We are working hard to fight hunger during this unprecedented time. Alongside continuing to provide food to more families, we also plan to provide regular meals to remnants of street children and homeless people in the Masaka area who have no one considering them at this time of the lockdown.
We are producing and distributing sanitisers
At Youth With A Vision we have value for every bit of donation you give us and we always make all efforts to control expenditures. To our advantage, the COVID-19 outbreak found some children and staff already equipped with liquid soap making skills. So during the time when sanitisers are scarce and very expensive, we produce and distribute for free liquid soap for a sanitizer to facilitate regular hand washing as one of the measures to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. We have already distributed 500 litres of own made sanitizers to 250 families each receiving 2 litres in Greater Masaka area in Uganda. We are working hard to promote proper hygiene during this unprecedented time. And our plan is to make more 1,000 litres of liquid soap for a sanitizer and make it available to 500 more vulnerable families.
Supporting youth on our Youth Finance Scheme who are affected by COVID-19
Since the abrupt shutdown as a measure to stop the spread of the COVID-19 in Uganda all youth on our Youth Finance Scheme have been badly affected and almost collapsed. Before the lockdown, the youth had re-invested all the profits to enable their small businesses to grow. It is now two months of lockdown and these youth are staying home without working or income to pay their house rent and buy essentials. They are struggling to get daily food because even the little money they had been left with, they spent it during the first two weeks of lockdown. And now that the government added two more weeks of lockdown ending in June 2020, life will remain very hard for the youth whom we have been empowering to establish their own enterprises and become financially independent. With your donations and support, youth who have been already on our program and at risk of hunger, are among the populations that we are giving food and essentials emergency including maize flour, rice, sugar, salt, beans, and liquid soap for a sanitizer, BUT a big question one would ask now is; where will these youth start from after the lockdown! And the answer is; After lockdown, we are planning to recapitalize all collapsed enterprises to bring them back on the road and also enroll and empower new fellows to start their own enterprises. However, we need your full support behind us in order to achieve this. Please donate to help Youth With A Vision support youth to boost their businesses after the pandemic. We take this great opportunity to thank all of you are supporting our Youth Finance Scheme and who have contributed to our COVID-19 Food and Sanitation Emergency Appeal. May the good Lord bless you always.
In addition, we are engaging and empowering beneficiaries of the Youth Finance Scheme whose businesses have collapsed to undertake alternative activities that don't require big capital or huge resources to keep them afloat while waiting for the situation to get better. So far we have supported 10 youth and here is what some of them are already doing to survive the effects of the pandemic.
Thank you for your support! In this uncertain time, I have resorted to growing
of maize on my already hired piece of land. The maize corn I planted is doing well and on the
weeding and pest control stage.
Enoch Kamya Abbey
Owner of Enoch Retail Shop formerly dealing in essential commodities.
This is Olivia Namayanja of Olivia's Second Hand Mobile Shop, a market vendor dealing in second-hand clothes (primarily jackets). When COVID-19 intensified and her business weathered, she explained to us her condition and together we brainstormed what she could do to survive this time of lock down and we came up with adding value and resale broiler chicken. She now buys broiler chicken of 2 months, she feeds them for more two weeks, a time they have gained additional weight and then resales at a higher price. On the previous Muslim Eid Day she sold off all the stock and she is planning to restock.
I am Noeline Malyante. When my tailoring enterprise stopped working due to COVID-19, I went back to my mentor at Youth With A Vision who encouraged me to think of something small to do during the lockdown. It is at this time that I discovered I had skills in making pancakes. I also identified some families who needed help with laundry. So I started frying pancakes, selling them door-to-door and washing people's clothes and I earn a living.
Here is Noel's video story.
Do you want to get involved or learn about the Youth Finance Scheme? Please go to https://www.youthwithavision.info/youth-finance-scheme We are supporting students to access Education in the lockdown
We established Study at Home Initiative through which we activated television and radio classes provided by local broadcasting services and distributed self-study materials from the Ministry of Education for students to have access to educational opportunities during the lockdown. Thanks to your generous donations, 20 students are currently accessing television classes while 50 students are accessing radio classes. We are continuing to support more students to access these learning channels. For students without access to television and radio, we are providing them with self-study materials organized by the ministry of education through the internet and local newspapers. So we download, pack, and distribute the materials to students. In addition, we have engaged and empowered guardians and parents to act as supervisors and monitors to ensure students focus on the learning and take it seriously. So far 380 students are benefiting from this program and have received the study materials. We continue to support students to access education, however, there are still over 2,000 students in the area without access to television or radio and they have already registered with us for the self-study materials and we would like to support them all.
We are spreading the message about COVID-19. Most of the local communities had no sufficient information about the spread and control of COVID-19. This is because most of the information about the pandemic is mainly communicated through social media platforms - radio stations, televisions, and newspapers the means that are not accessible to most of the vulnerable families in our community. Therefore to help sensitise the populations that have no access to the medium through which information about COVID-19 is communicated, we download the information and organise it into leaflets and posters, print it out, and then distribute it to the vulnerable families in order to protect them against the COVID-19. In addition, we have produced and distributed leaflets demonstrating to children how and why they wash their hands regularly. All this has helped to create awareness, slow the spread, and hence reducing the risk of exposing populations to the COVID-19 pandemic.
MORE STORIES
This is a 13-year-old Shadia Nakayondo the firstborn of 11 children in her family and also the first to receive an education. And it wouldn’t be possible without her SPONSORS – Catherine McMaster, Alton Thelwell and Laura Ashley Fenton who picked on her while on their one week Uganda Marathon adventure to Uganda. Shadia is from a Muslim family and without the help of Youth With A Vision, she would likely become a child bride, a practice common with most of Muslim families. But because of her SPONSORS, she is hopeful of a better and greater tomorrow.
Sponsor or encourage someone to sponsor a child with us today https://www.youthwithavision.info/sponsor-a-child
The negative effects of the Coronavirus to the already poor communities - Young people have resorted to stealing to get food Everyone has been affected by COVID-19 but young people here in Masaka have been affected more by the pandemic. Majority of them are daily income earners and since the installation of the lockdown, many have been left without a source of income to buy essentials mainly food. And without a government package, many have resorted to all sorts of antisocial behaviors - mainly stealing to get food. Most of the cases recorded daily at Masaka Police Station are committed by youth. They steal and sell their lot to get money for food. Here at Youth With A Vision together with generous sponsors, we are working hard to reach the young people with food, sanitizer, and resources to safeguard our community against the effects of the lockdown and youth against trouble due to lack of income to take them through the lockdown. We need you alongside us in order to continue safeguarding our communities while assisting vulnerable families through COVID-19. A man we gave food and essentials stole our office laptops and phone instead! For those of you who have ever visited our office and knew the laptops and phones we were using were stolen right from our offices, by a Tanzania national who was stranded in Uganda due to lockdown and was brought to Youth With A Vision starving and needing assistance for food and essentials. With love, we gave him the food and essentials he needed and he came back another day and stole our vital equipment – 2 laptops and 1 phone which we were using for our daily work. This equipment was stolen at the time we needed them most, and our communication and documentation work halted for some time. But this didn’t stop us from continuing with our food and essentials emergency distribution to the vulnerable families. We reported the matter to Police but we are yet to get an echo of hope. A huge thank you to our friend Andrew Hince who responded to our outcry with a donation – a brand new Dell laptop! We are glad that we are now re-energized, rebuilding our infrastructure to continue with our vital work of serving our community to successfully navigate through and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are more ways you can support us grow
Please help us to own this motorcycle so that we 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 meagre 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 centers, food, and sanitizers 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"
Now that you have known us Please consider telling your friends and family about our project and the work we are doing to support the vulnerable communities through COVID-19 - you can share this link to our web-page on social media, or just bring us in conversation https://www.youthwithavision.info Sharing with your community why you chose to support our organisation will help us increase the work we can do in our community as it will continue to grow our community of supporters like you! If you are willing to share the story of our work with your network, we would be incredibly grateful.
Our Online Shop https://www.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 this merchandise are made by children and youth on the programme!
If you can, please donate to support our work Every bit of donation counts and makes a big difference. This is how your contribution can help
£6 ($8) (€8) will buy ingredients to make 10 liters of proven effective liquid soap to sanitize one family for two months.
£20 ($25) (€22) will provide a food kit containing (10kgs of maize flour, 5kg of rice, 1.5 kgs of sugar, 5kgs of beans) for one family of five members for two weeks
£5 ($6 ) (€6 ) will provide self-study materials for 2 children to access education in the lockdown
Donate with PayPal or Card on https://www.youthwithavision.info/donate In gratitude and solidarity,
John Mugabi
Founder & Director
Youth With A Vision
Leandrew Muleme
Project Manager
Children and Education
Juliet Nampanja Kizza
Project Manager
Youth Finance Scheme
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