Programs
The Impact of HIV and AIDS in Rural Uganda
A HIV/AIDS diagnosis negatively impacts a person’s physical, financial and mental well being in the following ways:
- Physical Impact – A person must learn how to guard against the opportunistic diseases that emerge from a weakened immune system.
- Financial Impact – An already disadvantaged individual from a rural community has to find a way to not only afford, but to access health care.
- Mental Impact – A person has to combat the stigma that is associated with HIV/AIDS, which often results in depression and hopelessness.
Uganda Empowers: An Agent of Change
Uganda Empowers aims to be an all-inclusive agent of change by finding solutions to these problems. We provide a comprehensive package of services that include counseling, referrals, and sustainable economic development. We also provide basic care for Orphans and other Vulnerable Children (OVCs). All of our programming and events are centered on the following:
- HIV Testing and Treatment Referrals, Counseling, and Prevention – We work to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and to support those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.
- Empowering Children – We provide basic care for orphans and other vulnerable children that have been affected by HIV/AIDS. This includes providing health care, education supplies, counseling, and self-improvement activities for children.
- Combating Poverty – We develop sustainable ways for individuals in rural regions to earn income.
- Environment Conservation – We promote the conservation of the environment with renewable energy.
Our Programs
While Uganda Empowers tailors its services from community to community, we offer the following programs to all that we serve:
- Community Outreach Program
- Home Visiting Program
- Village Saving and Loaning Associations (VLSA) Program
- Project – Solar Nature
If you or your business would like to volunteer or collaborate with Uganda Empowers, please send us a message.
Community Outreach Program
Uganda Empowers performs a wide range of outreach activities as a way to uncover a community’s most critical needs. Our aim is to educate the community about HIV and AIDS, to provide care to those who have been under-served, and to impart methods of sustainable income streams for those in need.
Our key outreach activities include:
- An HIV/AIDS Awareness Program comprised of drama, counseling, and testing,
- An open call for Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) referrals,
- A series about Gender-Based Violence, and
- Basic Child Care and Child Development Services.
Read our blog to keep up with all of our programming, events, and services.
Home Visiting Program
The Uganda Empowers Home Visiting Program are a group of counselors that visit people with HIV/ AIDS in the Lwengo district. We visit people at home so that we can conveniently offer resources and advice to those in need. This is a follow-up task from our community outreach programs.
See our service reports with more information about our Home Visiting Program
Read our case studies developed from our Home Visiting Program
Village Saving and Loaning Associations (VSLA) Program
Our Village Saving and Loaning Associations (VSLA) Program is an income development program we have developed for those living in the rural communities of the Lwengo district. While this program is open to all that are interested, we target single mothers and caregivers of those with HIV/AIDS. The goal of the VSLA Program is to provide a sustainable source of income so that people in these communities can more readily afford transportation to health care units, school fees, and other basic needs.
To learn more about the VSLA Program, please contact Uganda Empowers Founder Matsiko Johnbosco at info@ugandaempowers.org.
Project – Solar Nature
Project – Solar Nature is an income-generating program where we sell solar panels to both the remote and more populated communities in the Lwengo district. This effort began as a response to a tragedy that occurred to Kasambya Buyinja village in Bijjaba Parish of the Lwengo district. In 2015, single mother Nalongo Robina lost her toddler child due to a fire caused by a kerosene light candle. At Uganda Empowers, it became our mission to transition as many families as we could from kerosene to solar panels. Since solar panels can be expensive, Uganda Empowers provides them to families who qualify for our loan program.
