Annual Report 2012

RURAL PEOPLE IN ACTION FOR DEVELOPMENT – RUPAD

P.O BOX 50 KAGADI

Email:ruralpeople@yahoo.com

ANNUAL REPORT 2012

 Message from Executive Director

I am privileged to share with you our performance for the year 2012. RUPAD’S intervention this year continued to be directed by our mission and vision. We have continued to contribute to community welfare through coordinating with various partners and donors. We have renewed our membership to the kibaale District civil society organisations network –KCSON, Uganda land alliance, Uganda Cooperative alliance  and seek to join other networks in 2013.

Our success this year was a result of a kind partnership with development agencies who supported our activities all year through. I would like on this note to acknowledge financial support from Tools for Self Reliance-TFSR, The Civil Society Fund,  the independent development fund (IDF) and individual partners. It is this support we have utilised to create impact and effect change in our rural communities.

I would like on this note to commend the positive contribution from the Kraus nick-Neo shadow community in Germany. EIRENE in September 2010 allocated to us one of the most hardworking volunteer Johannes Heideman. RUPAD will always acknowledge the great support received from Johannes. A very committed and open gentle man who was always willing to work with us and with his moral support we were able to get support from Germany towards the installation of solar power to the office, Tailoring room and Girls dormitory.

I would like on the same note to acknowledge support received from Katherine Heide and the neo-shadow and Kraus nick  community for their contribution towards construction of the boys Hostel and subsequent power installation.

I would like to commend the work done by the Board, staff and Volunteers towards the realisation of the 2012 objectives. It has not been easy without combined efforts. RUPAD has continued to serve being guided by its Guiding Principle of rural transformation using the people and priorities set together. We have continued to intervene under the Gender, Human Rights and Appropriate Technology, Vocational skills training, Nutrition and Agrarian Production, Enterprise development, HIV/AIDS Sanitation and Rural Health Training and Lobbying and Advocacy.

KYAMANYWA ROBERT

1.0              Introduction

The information in this report is a summary of RUPAD’S intervention for the year 2012 as guided by the interventions in the seven thematic areas   outlined in the chairpersons’ message. We have continued to contribute towards the realisation of our vision and mission.

RUPAD VISION

The people of Kibaale understand that they are key to their own development and are part and partial of their own community transformation.

RUPAD MISSION

To facilitate an integrated and self generating and sustainable development of rural communities and their economies.

ORGNISATION’S OBJECTIVE.

1-To equip rural communities in Uganda with knowledge , information, skills and technologies that enable them to develop as they sustain nature and protect Biodiversity.

2-To provide an opportunity to the rural women, girls, youth out of school, orphans and other vulnerable children to develop their potential and exploit their resources to the full through equipping them with vocational skills.

3-To mobilise resources for supporting sustainable economic security of rural communities.

4-To uplift the social economic status of the disadvantaged groups through training and provision of income generating activities at family level.

5-Advocacy,training and financial support to rural people targeting holistic rural intervention and human rights issues.

6-To sensitise and train rural communities in sustaining environmental components especially soils, wetlands, forests and water bodies.

7-To train rural communities in organic and sustainable agriculture to facilitate them access better crop markets and food security especially  among Orphans and Vulnerable Children, People Living With AIDS’s, People With Disabilities and other vulnerable groups

8- To instil a culture of hardworking, creativity and innovativeness among rural communities especially the youth and women through institutional development

9- To sensitise rural people in advocacy and lobbying skills so as to address issues like Human rights, Gender disparities, social conflicts and  protecting the beauty of our mother earth for the future generations.

Thematic Areas

RUPAD is Rural People in Action for Development. It is a registered organisation both at local and national level and has worked with various national and international agencies. We are affiliated to various networks at District, National and International levels especially those who cherish our ideologies of rural transformation and sustainable development .RUPAD has seven thematic areas which guides our services delivery.

These include :-

1-Gender, Human rights and Appropriate Technology.

2-Vocational skills training.

3- Environmental Protection

4- Nutrition and Agrarian production

5-Enterprise Development

6- HIV/AIDS and Rural Health Training.

7- Lobbying and Advocacy.

During the year 2012 the following interventions were done respectively as shown per thematic area.

Gender, Human Rights and Appropriate Technology.uuu776u7  777hgthggbyhyh46a

During 2012, RUPAD strengthened its support towards Gender training, Child rights Education and appropriate technology. With support from the Independent development fund  various child rights education training meetings, meetings targeting access to justice and land rights were arranged in Kibaale District. The focus area was Mugarama Sub county. This activity was implemented in conjunction with other partners like police through the Kibaale District civil society network. The coming year we hope to reach  many communities.

Community fora meeting held at imara trading centre in Mugarama Subcounty 2012.

Various child rights training were also organised at some selected primary schools. During these meetings various human rights issues were highlighted and child given the opportunity to share their experiences.

Below our volunteer Johannes Heide-man discusses the realities of the children rights in Europe.

Vocational Skills training. RUPAD has remained focused towards socio-economic transformation of rural areas by equipping the youth and other group’s especially vulnerable groups with vocational skills. At the beginning of the year 2012, fifty apprentices were enrolled for various trades of carpentry and joinery, Tailoring and knitting and business management.  In the same year RUPAD vocational centre received many visitors both from within and outside to study and share with us about the training programmes and selection. We have always insisted on the principle of the most vulnerable to benefit first as a guide to our selection criteria.

 

Asiimwe Okello one of the Vulnerable child doing his final practical skills exam

Pendo Jackline one the Tailoring apprentice during one of the practices.

Above one the RUPAD Graduates KAJUNGU carrying home his sofa set.

However during the year 2012 both the carpentry section and Tailoring section greatly improved. We  have however continued to hire the knitting machines and our apprentices are being trained in groups of six or seven which takes the training sessions late into the evenings. We shall try to struggle and acquire at least one knitting machine for training purposes.

Environmental protection component

This year 2012 our emphasis was still on rejuvenating Biodiversity as we did in the year 2011. Kibaale District is experiencing the worst wave of natural forest destruction ever recorded in its history. Daily the national forest authority is engaged in running battles with encroachers. Kangombe one of the biggest forest reserve in the area is almost extinct. Other forest reserves like Gurama are extinct and  National Forest Authority  seem to have given up. The year 2012 received the worst wave of immigrants from Rwanda and Kigezi and this was equivalent to the level of destruction. Destruction of the remaining forest cover is still ongoing. Urgent steps should holistically be put into pace to avert the situation. As RUPAD, we have continued to organise community sensitisation meetings but this was not easy. Often a lot of arguments would arise during these meetings and conflict of interest between parties i.e. local politicians ,civil society organisations and National forest Authority staff continued to be a major weakness in this struggle. RUPAD continued to encourage Natural tree species like Maratha intea (here known as misambya), Cardia Africana Gukyali Mukebu, Exotic Mivule, Musizi, Gravellia and pines  although unlike 2012 tree seedlings were not distributed due to lack of funding to acquire seeds from Namanve. The coming year we also hope to introduce the community environmental Educational project were communities will be trained on how to raise tree seedlings and supported with seeds from Namanve.

Nutrition and Agrarian production.

This year 2012  we continued to expand on nutrition and agrarian production, we have reached the ground and created change through increasing production and surplus. It is vital to note that the today’s economic powers like USA, Britain and a few others expanded their economies out of increase in total production. Actually slave trade was thriving due to the much needed profits from sugar. The challenge with rural economies is little total production were communities have little surplus to take to the market. As a result of this there is little market participation. Even the few who produce at a large scale cannot reach the international standards due to poor varieties, Poor Harvesting technologies and preservation. This year we continued to supply improved pineapple suckers to the communities. Our project to Naads is still a major hope towards commercialisation of pineapples and value addition. We shall continue to pursue this until we achieve large scale production and marketing. Cabbages and onion seeds were also distributed to the communities. Rice seeds of nerica iv were distributed with the same support from the civil society fund.

Below-Training farmers on rice growing at RUPAD and rice Bags in office

Above banana suckers being distributed to communities

Enterprise Development Component.The Guiding philosophy behind this component is to enable rural communities acquire skills of selecting appropriate enterprises and sustain them at Household level. This we believe could be done by encouraging rural communities to save and access credit and also to put small income generating activities at a house hold level. Under this component we have strengthened the RUPAD farmers savings and credit cooperative society to enable our farmers save and invest. However our sacco still need support both technical, capacity building and financial for meeting staff expenses. The SACCO has enlarged with now 157 members. We were not able to acquire a loan from micro finance support centre but we still have the hope.

HIV/AIDS , Sanitation and Rural Health Training.

Under this component a lot of achievements were registered. New innovations emerged and a lot more challenges arose. We continued to provide health services through community health training programmes. We have continued to lobby for support towards the construction of a health centre but this is not yet realised.

Under sanitation our target for this year was to increase the number of pit latrines to 50 and put the same number of water harvesting tanks at selected families. We registered tremendous achievements but a lot more is lacking. It is surprising to many especially those of urban background that people in rural areas have no toilets. Well as many do not know the dangers, some simply lack advice and empowerment to make them start. With support from the civil society fund twenty five families were reached but only those with orphans and widows. This we realised in 2010 under the CSF OVC mapping. With kind support from CSF, 25 pit latrines were sunk in Nyamarunda, Muragama and Bwamiramira sub counties. Below are some of the toilets sunk under the CSF support. With support from the Neo shadow community widows and orphans in Mugarama and Nyamarunda sub counties were supported with mosquito nets.

Widows from selected households were also supported with san plats for pit latrines. The challenge however is that most vulnerable homes do not have recommendable pit latrines. Most of them range from 10 to 15 feet.

The water project persistently remain a challenge both to our beneficiaries and us as RUPAD. Our children have no water at all. They have to endure the long lines on only one shallow well and I must say we have lost many of girls to defilers due to the water problem. We have tried all efforts to secure at least one water source but our efforts are still futile.  This year due to lack of water we sunk out an old style one with Carpentry students but this is dangerous because the water is not clean. We use it strictly after boiling as the good source of water is quite a distance and frequent movements for far away water sources puts girls in constant danger of rape and defilement as mentioned above.

Above some of our apprentices sinking a water source and below testing the flow of water

Lobbying and Advocacy

RUPAD as a civil society has continued to lobby and Advocate for the rights of the marginalised groups. This year in Partnership with Kibaale District Civil Society Organisations Network RUPAD continued implementing a child and women rights project Funded by the Independent Development Fund IDF. We shall throughout the year 2012 continue to lobby for conducive policies and equal rights and opportunities for marginalised groups.

Challenges

As usual every intervention goes with a few challenges. Most particularly is lack of appropriate funding. Most donors tend to believe in organisations that are either too big with billions of budgets or have an international background. Well as this is good most native or local organisations who may know the target groups and the local environment better cannot favourably compete for funding and this factor continue to impact negatively on funding opportunities for community organisation with no marching grants or big budgets.

Secondly is the raising cost. All most every budget was affected by unstable price increases and this divergence affected our schedules of implementation as every budget decision has to be approved by the donor.

Another challenge was lack of wood work equipments for use in our workshop for training of apprentices. The training is seriously affected by lack of these equipments. Probably our performance would have been different with these equipments in place. For any design we have to hire a vehicle and take the timber to big towns like Hoima or Kagadi.

Lastly Water. Every community needs water. Lack of water both for use at organisation level, community and apprentices is a very great challenge. The source of water we have was sunk by our apprentices and the quality of water is shameful. We shall continue to lobby for any possible support towards this problem.

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