YARID NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2014 YOUNG AFRICAN REFUGEES FOR INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT SUMMER-FALL-WINTER ACTIVITIES
A LETTER FROM THE FOUNDER This season was marked by huge changes since our work began in 2008. Despite our financial challenges, limited resources and the increased number of urban refugees, this year we managed to serve more than 600 refugees in our educaAon, sports, women’s empowerment and social media programs. With over 320,000 refugees in Uganda, we believe that there is sAll more to be done. The capital Kampala hosts more than 50,000 refugees – mostly women and youth. Due to the high volume of refugees, larger organizaAons cannot provide sufficient assistance. That is why grassroots and community-‐based organizaAons like YARID play such a big role. YARID is a small organizaAon with six volunteer staff on the ground, yet served almost 600 refugees this year. I salute the courage and the passion of our staff who volunteer their Ame, energy, and money to help others. Without their commitment we wouldn’t be where we are today. This summer, I decided to go back to Uganda aRer being reseSled in the United States for two years. The experience of course was very different. Being in the states for two years has really inspired me and made me see things in a very different way. It gave me more courage and passion to conAnue working hard to help refugees both in Africa and in the U.S. While in Uganda, we celebrated our seven year anniversary with YARID staff, partners, and parAcipants. I sAll cannot believe how far we’ve come. I look back seven years and remember our first “office” was under a tree and we someAmes met in church halls in very hard situaAons. I could not even speak English at this Ame. But none of it maSered because we were in a passionate pursuit of making change and improving the lives of refugees in Kampala.
Our main focus this year was to raise money to sustain our programs and to provide beSer services to urban refugees in Uganda. Through our U.S. team we worked hard to try to solve our financial limits through grant wriAng and fundraising. Even though we have not yet met our goal, our work conAnues in innovaAve ways. Our most exciAng moment this year was being awarded our first formal grant, the 2014 UN-‐HABITAT Youth Award that will help run our acAviAes into 2015. In this note, I would like also to thank everyone who contributed financially and in person to our work either this year of previous years. Your support and donaAons made us able to funcAon up to the end of this year. Through our partner organizaAons we are able to cover some acAviAes costs, but it does not cover any staff sApends. This is my biggest wish this next year that we can fully pay our staff for the work they are doing wholeheartedly. I would like to encourage you to conAnue supporAng our work especially our courageous, passionate volunteer staff that despite their financial challenges they conAnue working hard to change the life of many. Next year we are looking forward to serve more refugees through our English classes, social media and computer courses, and offer more special topic workshops on women’s issues and human rights. Our focus next year will be on developing the Women’s Empowerment Project as a social enterprise to build YARID’s financial sustainability through selling some of the women’s beauAful, hand craRed products! Stay tuned… Many Thanks, Sedrick Murhula Ntwali Check out my new blog at: hSp://sedmurhula.wix.com/sauA
BACK TO UGANDA This summer, YARID Founder (Sedrick) and Development Director (Kaley) returned to Uganda to host a strategic visioning meeting with staff, visit partners, assess programs, and collect beneficiary stories for future campaigns.
YARID staff break out into discussion groups to develop goals for their programs.
YARID staff Christian Ndagano Salumu presents his ideas to grow the Sports For Development Program.
ROBERT TO THE UK YARID’s Uganda Director and Co-Founder, Robert Hakiza, traveled to London to present research he conducted with the Humanitarian Innovation Project at Oxford University. Read the full research report here: http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/refugeeeconomies Read about Robert’s experience in UK: http://www.oxhip.org/2014/10/hakiza/
LATEST PROJECTS Online English Classes RESPECT University Functional Adult Literacy Business Courses Girls Soccer Team Baseball Team Web Design
WOMEN’S CENTER GROWS In August 2013,YARID opened the Women’s Empowerment Center to offer vocational trainings for refugee women to learn tailoring, fashion design, and craft making. This year, 20 women completed trainings. And 5 received new jobs from local employers!
WOMEN’S CENTER Below, a YARID Women’s Center graduate shows off a girls dress at her new tailoring job.
Above, graduates model their tailored designs.
HER STORY
This is a story of one of YARID’s women participants whose name is concealed. Interview transcribed by Victoria Haddad-Salah.
In 2013, soldiers arrived at her house killed her husband of six months and threatened that they would come back to kill her too. Her niece and older sister had been visiting her at the time. Her older sister was killed and she was forced to watch as three soldiers raped her 13 year old niece. She realized that to save her own life and the life of her niece, they had to flee Congo. She and her niece departed their home the next morning at 6am, walking for over twelve hours from Goma, Congo to Kisoro, Uganda. They followed crowds of other Congolese, fleeing the war for safety in Uganda. In Kisoro, in southwestern Uganda, she and her niece picked up a bus to Kampala. They arrived the following morning in Kampala without any resources, friends, or family.
She did not speak English or Luganda, the primary languages spoken in Uganda. This impeded her ability to get a job, purchase food, rent an apartment or interact with the local community in her daily life. She was isolated in her apartment with her niece as they mourned the loss of their family members and their traumatic refugee experience. Soon after arriving, she met a Congolese woman selling jewelry who told her about YARID’s English for Adults program. Soon after she started taking English classes at YARID and completed levels I and II. English helped her to go to the market, communicate with Ugandans, and integrate into the country. Eager to continue with her training and find employment, she enrolled in YARID’s Women’s Empowerment program where she studied tailoring. She has learned how to make dresses, shirts, aprons, and bags which she hopes to sell. She thinks that English, combined with her tailoring skills, will help her to get a job in Uganda and pay for her niece’s school fees so that she can go back to school. She exclaims, “YARID has helped me so much!”
SPORTS FOR DEVELOPMENT This year,YARID began a Baseball Team. With support from Coach Akihiro Kanezashi from Japan, YARID has helped start one of the 1st refugee baseball teams in Uganda.
Far left,YARID’s Baseball team attends a training camp with Play Globall. Above, players practice baseball. Below, baseball coach Kanezashi with YARID Uganda Director Robert.
CELEBRATING 7 YEARS OF YARID’S WORK Since it’s grassroots beginnings in 2008,YARID has served over 4,000 refugees in Kampala. This summer we celebrated 7 years of community-based service with music, food, drinks, and graduations (dancing too). We saluted the efforts of volunteer staff, partners, collaborating organizations, and graduating beneficiaries. The event highlighted the Women’s Empowerment Center’s 1st training graduates, the English for Adults Levels 1&2 graduates, and Social Media graduates.
INTERNS & VOLUNTEERS Every year YARID hosts volunteers and interns who support day-today activities through teaching English, coaching sports, collecting and evaluating data and research. Even teaching Yoga!
Volunteer Erika from Canada tutored English students.
Intern Victoria from Washington D.C. offered Yoga Classes to staff and students.
INTERNS & VOLUNTEERS Aurora from Italy volunteered in our English classes Isaac from Canada helped with computer graphics training in the TAMUKA HUB
SIT STUDENT WORKSHOPS Every year,YARID hosts study abroad students from the School For International Training (SIT) based in the U.S. This fall, Gender & Development and Conflict Transformation students learned about refugee life in Kampala from YARID staff and hosted a workshop for YARID beneficiaries.
NEW DATA An exciting development this summer, was the support YARID received from Victoria Haddad-Salah, our Monitoring & Evaluation Intern from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Victoria organized and collected YARID’s data since 2008. Here is a summary of Victoria’s efforts: Program
People Served (2008-July 2014)
English Level 1
1,278
English Level 2
682
English Level 3
426
Social Media & Computer
250
Women’s Empowerment Center
12
RESPECT University
10
Sports For Development
380
FUNDRAISING EFFORTS In June, friends of YARID in the U.S. (San Diego) hosted a fundraising event in coordination with World Refugee Day. The money raised supported YARID staff through stipends, enabled the growth of the Women’s Center, and covered other program operating costs.
Above, Julia Holladay and Deborah Dorn pose with YARID Founder Sedrick Murhula Ntwali and Development Director Kaley Hearnsberger at the June Fundraiser in San Diego, CA.
IN THE NEWS TakePart, a socially conscious news organization, featured YARID on their LiveTV series, check it out at this link: http://www.takepart.com/ video/2014/11/12/how-helpurban-refugees-teach-themenglish-soccer-and-facebook? cmpid=longtailshare
WHAT’S NEXT? YARID was one of the UN-Habitat Urban Youth Fund 2014 winners! This grant is focused on Women’s Empowerment projects including: YARID’s girls soccer team, tailoring trainings, and English courses. See announcement here: http:// unhabitat.org/urban-youth-fund-2014winners-announced/ Finnish Refugee Council in Uganda awarded YARID with funds for an Income Generating Project (IGA) which allowed for buying more sewing machines and materials for the Women’s Empowerment Center.
DONATE TODAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE Despite our recent success receiving grants, the awards are restricted and cannot be fully applied to administrative and staffing costs. Continue your support by donating $50 (or more) to our Staff Stipend Fund. We have 5 staff who need supplemental funding for 2015. Donate online at: http:// www.yarid.org/donate.html
THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS! Amberley Middleton Anchi Mei Bonome Kibukila Claire Henry Deborah Dorn Josiah Thomas Judy Bernstein Julia Holladay Karen Brummet Marie-Line Allen Orlando Benitez Paul Bwinika Roxanne Hersh And all other supports who contributed throughout this year. We depend on your generosity.
Our special thanks to all of those who contributed of their time and money to make YARID a success. Without your care and support we could not have served over 600 refugees in 2014 alone.
THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS Finnish Refugee Council (FRC) Xavier Project School for International Training (SIT) Pan African Development Education and Advocacy Program (PADEAP)
THANK YOU STAFF Most importantly, we want to thank YARID’s team of staff in Uganda who volunteer their time, energy, and passion for the community. Without you this work is impossible! Francine Elvis Christian Robert Rody Alex Joselyn Aisha Fidele
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