The community programs that we run include:
Environment and Climate change
Through community mobilization and campaigns, and in partnership with other stakeholders and students, AIDEST engages communities to participate in tree planting, and educate local communities on the benefits of preserving trees so as to protect the environment and ensure climate change. A new project for waste collection or bin-it for recycling has been introduced to help collect waste products like bottles, metal, plastic bags, polythene, and paper to ease work for recycling companies collect it to recycle and turn into useful products like fertilizers, bags, raw materials, handicrafts among others. After binning it recycling companies do collect the waste in the collection centers designated by the authorities. Developments have been established in schools to guide them on forming environmental clubs in Primary and Secondary Schools.
As part of innovation, AIDEST promotes sustainable energy to reduce households’ and communities’ dependence on firewood, charcoal, and electricity that is expensive; and return to promoting the construction and use of household biogas as a sustainable source of energy. Biogas is cheaper and easy to use. By this, we provide community training on construction of biogas units and its benefits and encourage them to use the system in their own homes, as long as a single household possesses at least 3 cows and above. Encourage the school’s heads (Nursery, Primary, and Secondary) to help children create or start forming environment clubs and these should be established and managed by children/students themselves for the purpose of sustainability.
Gender-based and Domestic violence
In Uganda, the latest report shows that domestic violence is commonplace. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, close to 71% of ever-married women aged 15 to 49 experience some form of violence at the hands of their partners. And also citing a United Nations report, a 2010 U.S. Department of State Report on human rights in Uganda offers further insight; 60% of women aged 15 and above experienced physical violence, 15% of women face violence during pregnancy, and husband’s prerogative, as did the majority of the population, and rarely intervened in cases of domestic violence.
Public health services
Research has it that, in Uganda, millions of adolescents / young people aged between 10 – 19 years are infected by HIV&AIDS and other reproductive health risks, still a worrying and alarming situation; create awareness through the provision of counseling services, training, and guidance to adolescents to reduce the spread of HIV&AIDS epidemic and other reproductive health risks. We support these groups by encouraging them to control, use all preventive measures, and refer them to health centers for treatment through capacity building; fight to reduce the rate of early and unwanted pregnancies among teenagers.
Water and sanitation
AIDEST promotes water, hygiene, and sanitation programs by installing water sources like boreholes and construction of wells with appropriate technologies in collaboration with partners to provide safe and clean water to communities in rural and peri-urban areas that find difficulties in accessing and collecting water from distant areas. Promotion of WASH programs in schools and communities. School communities in rural and urban locations as well as households should strive to live in a safe and clean healthy environment and to always use clean water in their homes both for cooking, washing, and drinking. By building capacity we encourage mothers and children to always sleep under mosquito nets to prevent Malaria, appropriate measures on control.
Agriculture and Agribusiness for sustainability
After having received knowledge and skills training in agriculture and agribusiness for sustainability to help reducing poverty in rural communities, we embarked on promoting agriculture in Uganda by encouraging and engaging local farmers in agribusiness through seminars especially to young people; help them become self-sustaining. We mostly focus on growing rice, keeping cattle to producing milk, and yogurt for health Ugandans. Use of ICT development to grow foods for example, like cabbages, maize and coffee for instance, and the quality of seeds, and thereafter locate market locally and internationally, or use of the internet, thus creating sustainable income. We want young people to engage in agriculture and to participate in such training to become professionals in this sector because agriculture is a source of income and backbone of Uganda.
Human Rights and Advocacy
AIDEST demonstrates its commitment to advocate for good governance and promote respect of one’s rights by engaging human rights defenders through collaborations and partnerships created with other non-governmental organizations, civil society in Uganda, the central government, Global Aid for Africa and other partners nationally and internationally to build peace and provision of quality, effective and efficient service to the community in order achieve the UN-SDGs priority.
The key priority areas in its Strategic Action Plan anchor on – a) creating a unified pillar that aligns with the implementation for SDGs at country level; b) advocacy for and promote policies and programs that contribute to good governance; c) incorporate mainstreaming and crosscutting issues e.g. gender quality, quality education, health and well-being, advocacy, lobby, decent work, research, documentation, environmental management, and climate change.
The objectives for which AIDEST is established include: – a) to promote and support education and creative skills for the less fortunate by working with other partner organizations and ensure good learning environment and quality education’ b) to promote, support, empower and providing basic necessities to needy groups e.g. scholastic materials, clothing, promote water, sanitation and hygiene in schools and communities, and support them in different aspects in order to become self-sustaining, facilitate programs and/or projects, promote cultural discipline and respect others without any discrimination against sex, religion, gender, age in order to lift their standards thus strengthening program inclusion.
Renewable Energy Sustainability
The organization has taken a trend of engaging youth to promote the use of renewable energy efficiency. Solar training for youth during internship and distribution to the community, households, small and medium enterprises, government hospitals, and private health centers, contracts received from the public and private schools. AIDEST has also integrated biogas energy promotion in the campaign of reducing the number of dependents on trees for wood and charcoal, enabling smallholders farmers and other small enterprises or businesses to adopt the use of biogas energy for cooking and lighting in their homes, thus promoting energy efficiency and sustainability to reduce the rate at which the climate is affected, including polluting natural resources and communities. AIDEST considers the use of solar and biogas energy and installation to allow communities to access renewable source energy. Currently, the organization is using a biogas combustion system as a need for clean and sustainable energy in the process of producing tiles and pavers that powers the kiln.
Please keep checking the website or subscribe to our newsletter or Facebook page to keep up-to-date regarding all developments. Or call us at +256 782 540 209 or send an email to info@aidest.org, africaidest@yahoo.co.uk