History

Africa Intercultural Development Support Trust (AIDEST) was founded on June 2010 by Herman Kizito. The idea of setting up the organization was that would somehow increase sustainability and self-reliance of local communities originates from years before; somewhere in 2008, says Kizito. At that moment there was no real idea of establishing such an organization, what its focus would be (although it was clear that it should revolve around employment of disadvantaged youths and women), and how the entire project should be financed.

 After mingling amongst the target groups (underprivileged youths and women), by volunteering at places where specifically groups of youths come together like car washes and tree planting areas, it became clear what the problem was. A lot of youths could not find employment, since the only jobs available required knowledge and experience of specific practical skills. This was also against their rights to education and training, hence their health services, safe livelihoods and future.

 Now that the problem was known, and with that the objective of forming a not-for-profit and charity organization, the problems were realised and to be tackled. At that point, Mr. Kizito had not told anybody about his idea, except for his sister and one consultant Mr. Okullu-Ayor Vincent who at some points advised in some decisions that were to be taken. After searching the internet for possible ways of financing the project, Mr. Kizito found a Dutch Foundation called 1%CLUB in the Netherlands. This foundation helps entrepreneurs with smart, sustainable and innovative ideas through improving the quality of life for semi-urban and rural communities in developing countries to get into contact with people who would like to invest (1%) of their money, time and/or knowledge, was the way for Kizito to achieve his goal. He immediately sought of contacting the members online, but it took more time to design a good plan. With some guidance of one of the 1%CLUB members, who was willing to invest time in this plan, the project was finally posted online to gather funding in the summer of 2010. All financial investments so far (for example for the use of internet, printing etc.) were paid for by Mr. Kizito’s personal money.

Even though the will to succeed was obviously still there, the fact that financing the project took so long eventually became a little    de-motivating. Then, in September 2011, two employees of 1%CLUB visited Uganda to provide training in social media. The knowledge and skills were not only very useful, but also very important to bring back the motivation to realize funding. In the beginning of 2012, a big multinational organization and also partner of 1%CLUB organized an event in Kampala were 26 projects from all over Africa were invited to present their ideas and the best three would receive a substantial amount of money for their projects. Even though Mr. Kizito was unable to attend the event in person, his online presentation was so clear and convincing and his idea was so innovative and sustainable, that he ended at a glorious second place, earning his idea the amount of €1,500. This really boosted moral, since it did not only bring him closer to his goal, it also confirmed the importance of the ideas that were set.