project activities

The purpose of the Ainembabazi Children's Project is to enable the orphans and other vulnerable children affected by the AIDS crisis in Southern Uganda to acquire basic education, attain improved health standards of living, and achieve life skills and empowerment. We are deeply moved by the needs of these children and feel small steps will make a difference in their lives.

In order to address the challenges that both children AND the community faces in confronting AIDS, the project seeks to enhance community capacity to manage and support the living conditions of orphans and vulnerable children in the area.  Ainembabazi believes that to build a community and to support these children, a holistic approach to development is necessary.  Providing support in one area, such as education, may be fruitless if other issues such as malnutrition and poverty are not also addressed.  While our goals of supporting multidimensional development may be grand, they are a necessary approach to sustainability and true long-term community empowerment.

Our current activities include:

• Supporting Education through direct engagement with children, teachers, guardians and school administration. The project seeks to make education accessible and to work with the Ugandan community to enhance the quality of educational experience and improve literacy.

• A youth music and drama group has been developed to provide a space for peer support, leadership development and to educate the community on AIDS. 

• Healthcare and AIDS prevention are critical priorities in the community. There is a need to provide basic access to primary healthcare but also to address AIDS in order to stop the spread of the virus as well as to break down the barriers of stigma associated with the disease. The project is currently undertaking a community dialogue initiative, Stepping Stones, to facilitate education and awareness of AIDS.  We are also developing a program training community resource persons to provide basic healthcare and outreach in the community.  Nutritional research is underway and activities are also being developed to address issues of malnourishment and child development.

• The project has developed a sports program for both young girls and boys to provide a space for leadership development, the breaking of social barriers, psychosocial support and therapy, self esteem development, and peer support.

• A school twinning project called the Synergy Art Circuit has been piloted and advanced to support the needs of individual schools in Mbarara and Bushenyi districts. 

• Micro-lending has become a large component of our work and we are working in the communities to support small business development and diversification. 

• Income generation through livestock support and education programs, sewing cooperatives, and skills development.

The Project initiated activities in January 2006 and will be seeking funding support through a number of channels.

For more information on specific aspects of our work please contact the following Committees directly:

Synergy and Education Committee