YARID NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2014YOUNG 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

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.

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.

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 CENTERBelow, a YARID Women’s Center graduate

shows off a girls dress at her new tailoring job.

Above, graduates model their tailored designs.

HER STORY

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!”

This is a story of one of YARID’s women participants whose name is concealed. Interview transcribed by

Victoria Haddad-Salah.

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-to-day 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-help-urban-refugees-teach-them-english-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-2014-winners-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 TODAYAND 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!

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.

Amberley Middleton Anchi MeiBonome KibukilaClaire HenryDeborah DornJosiah ThomasJudy BernsteinJulia HolladayKaren BrummetMarie-Line AllenOrlando BenitezPaul BwinikaRoxanne Hersh

And all other supportswho contributed throughoutthis year. We depend on yourgenerosity.

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!

FrancineElvis

ChristianRobert

RodyAlex

JoselynAishaFidele

KEEP IN TOUCH

https://twitter.com/yariduganda

https://www.facebook.com/YaridUganda

http://www.yarid.org/

New logo designed by Hero Keidji