Uganda Unites – Kampala, Uganda

Causes: Youth Movement, Transformation, Restoration, Reconciliation

Amos Kiyingi, National Director

Scroll to bottom of page to see an urgent COVID-19 message

Uganda Unites is affiliated with Prashan De Visser’s Global Unites Ministry. Amos leads the Uganda chapter. We have partnered together with Amos since the inception of Uganda Unites and the ministry has experienced great traction and is moving in a very positive direction. The entire organization is staffed primarily by volunteers that are committed to impacting Ugandan’s youth for a better future.

Mission

Connect youth from all ethnic and religious backgrounds in Uganda in a movement that provides hope and promotes reconciliation, equipping them in relational peace building and inspiring them towards social engagement in communities to build co-existing and sustainable peaceful Ugandan generations working together for a prosperous nation.

Background

Uganda Unites is a national youth-led movement that connects youth from different religious and ethnic backgrounds to equip and inspire them with peace building and leadership skills to become agents of change and make their communities better places to live. With 12 major conflicts and over 1/2 a million deaths since independence, we promote a culture of nonviolence and peace among our youth who make up 75% of our population. Uganda Unites is committed to developing future young, diverse leaders from grassroots communities to deliver our long-term vision of a peaceful country. We inspire them to start community development projects and initiate peace clubs in their schools, universities and communities. We do this through School Relation Tours as well as Future Leaders' Conferences that have engaged 9,696 youth to-date. A marker of our success is that 73% of the youth engaged have signed up as members of Uganda Unites and now champion our cause supporting the creation of a peaceful and cohesive country.

The Problem

Uganda has never had a democratic and peaceful transition of power; every new leader has been ushered in by war. 12 major conflicts since independence have led to over 1/2 a million deaths and nearly 2 million people being displaced. With 75% of the current population below the age of 35 and 50% below the age of 15, young people are being targeted and manipulated by those with political and tribal ambition in order to destabilize the country to fulfill their own agendas. A further risk to the country is that many of the youth believe that violence is the only solution to their need for a change in leadership. In addition, there is ethnic conflict with the most noticeable one being the 2010 Buganda riots, targeting people from western Uganda. We also have active rebel groups such as the ADF that are aimed at radicalizing the youth to further their agenda.

What We Do

The Future Leaders Conference (FLC)

The FLC brings together young people of diverse ethnic and religious communities to become change agents for peace and reconciliation. Held over 5 days, it is an intensive program that teaches key leadership skills and develops the capabilities of young people through keynote speakers, panel discussions and workshops. The conference also facilitates small group discussions between students from different tribal backgrounds to work towards breaking negative stereotypes and increasing respect for each other. After the conference, the youth will have developed lasting friendships across divides and will continue growing the movement where they live. 500 young people from 50 different communities then become ambassadors for conflict transformation, adhering to a strict code of non-violence and education.

The School Relation Tours

The School Relations Tour is comprised of the top youth leader volunteers of Uganda Unites traveling across the country and visiting all districts to promote the cause of reconciliation and ethnic harmony. The team visits high schools, universities and community gatherings to conduct workshops on reconciliation and national level leadership. These visits also encourage the creating of peace clubs in high schools, universities and communities. To date, we have engaged youth in more than 100 schools, universities and communities.

Peace Clubs in Schools

Following the School Relation Tour, the schools are supported to set up a peace club. Our vision is that the peace clubs are rooted in the schools and communities and be a hub for education, leadership skills development and inspire youth to play an active role in promoting reconciliation and countering violent extremism. We provide each peace club with a guidebook that contains tools and road maps towards having a deeper knowledge of leadership, reconciliation and conflict transformation. Following mentoring we support the members to work on a project to impact a community of their choice, catalyzing grassroots change to occur by pooling the efforts of multiple youth from different ethnicities and social economic backgrounds. To date we have supported the start of more than 100 peace clubs in schools, universities and communities.

Chess for Peace

The game of chess helps young people learn to concentrate, think logically, overcome obstacles, spot patterns and categorize information.

It helps in the development of problem solving skills, planning, patience, focus of thought and self-discipline. These are key principles for conflict transformation. The chess-training program are run in peace clubs.

How We Work

Uganda Unites works purely on a voluntary basis with 104 volunteers across the country. Part of the volunteers make up the Core Team of 15 youth that meet once a week to discuss ongoing initiatives, brainstorms on future endeavors, make financial decisions, and report back on sub-committee/department, however the sub-committees/departments meet more frequently to ensure a smooth running of activities. This team works alongside 2 full time staff, and one part time staff. The staff and core team reports to the National Director who in turn reports to a board of trustees that provides guidance and mentorship on the running of the organization.

Pillars

Conflict Transformation: Stop the generational cycle of conflict within Uganda and transform hate into hope, peace, and reconciliation.
Youth Lead: Focus love and attention on those who will fight the next conflict, the young. Give them hope by involving them in peace building, and break stereotypes that have been created for generations.
Grassroots: Stay local. Each conflict is unique, and a sustainable peace can only come from those who have lived and suffered on the ground. Uganda Unites works with and supports youth leaders in their journey from conflict to peace.
Non-violence: A lasting peace is only possible with a commitment to non-violence, and that is the pledge we want each youth in Uganda to stand by.

An urgent COVID-19 message from Amos Kiyingi

One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda is that daily wage earners in the communities we serve are not earning due to the lockdown instituted by the government and as such families are going without meals. Uganda Unites is supporting daily wage earners because, 43% (19.3 million) of Uganda’s population are daily wage earners. The government announced that they will be supporting only 1.5 million of these with meals to last a month. Uganda Unites in partnership with Robert Katende Initiative, The Cradle and SafeBoda Uganda are putting together relief packages.

The relief packs were distributed in the slums of Katwe, Nateete, Kibuli, Bwaise and Kawempe. These are the 5 major slums of Kampala with a concentration of daily wage earners. This package is estimated to last a family of 5 members up to 2 weeks, at which point we shall provide another pack to last another 2 weeks. We are targeting urban or rural urban areas because 83% daily wage earners are from these areas, with 52% of them living in Kampala and its surrounding areas.

SafeBoda is a delivery service company and it has provided us with free trips to deliver the packages from the centre where we set them up to the homes of the beneficiaries. This promotes the social distancing aspect, ensuring that we are protecting the team (volunteers) preparing the packages and the beneficiaries receiving them.

In addition, Uganda Unites through its volunteers is identifying families outside Kampala in all the communities we serve, and as we scale up the support, we shall be providing the same relief packages in these communities. This week we shall also begin to support some of the families of our volunteers across the country. Many of our volunteers' parents are daily wage earners and we would very much like to support some of our volunteers affected during this difficult time.

Mama Sarah, as she is known in her community, is a Democratic Republic of Congo refugee, living in Uganda’s Katwe slum. A secondhand shoe hawker on the streets of Kampala, moved from Congo to escape the war that has ravaged their country for decades. Leaving family behind to start a new safe life for her 4 children. On 19th March she traveled to Congo to visit what is left of her family unfortunately, due to the identification of the 1st COVID – 19 case on the 21st of March, the Government of Uganda closed all our board points, this meant that what was supposed to be a 4 day visit would leave her stranded in Congo and her children with no one to provide for them. What she had left behind would only last them the week. This meant that the children left at home were now in need of food relief for as long as they had no adult in the home. It will be days, even months before they get to see their mother again as what was a 14-day lockdown in Uganda has been extended to for another 21 days. Uganda Unites in Partnership with Robert Katende Initiative and SafeBoda Uganda have been able to provide them with food relief to last them 2 weeks and have been able to convince their landlord to grant them access to the house during this a period and accept a new payment plan, when this situation has come to an end.

There are many stories like this, across communities in Uganda and we would like to continue supporting these families during this time and post COVID – 19 Lockdown.