Project Proposal Summary
| Rotarian Peace Projects Incubator’s Thematic Area | |
| Rotary Focus Area | |
| Contact:
Contact person within your group (Name and email) |
Becca Weighell |
| Project Title:
Provide a full title |
Youth Participation for Better Child Protection |
| Project Partners and Participating Organisations:
List all your project partner organisations, including participating Rotary clubs and districts if any |
War Child UK
War Child Holland’s Uganda Office Makerere University Rotary Peace Centre Similar Ground Kampala Ssese Island Rotary Club |
| Geographical Scope | Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement, Uganda |
| Summary:
Please provide a concise summary with a maximum of 500 words outlining the project and explaning the community needs your project will address and how these needs were identified. Ensure that you include what your project aims to achieve (objective) and how (method/procedure). What will be the main outcomes? Explain in a few sentences how you will incorporate the objective of sustainability into your project. |
Between July 2018 and June 2020, War Child supported two ‘VoiceMore’ groups in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, Northern Uganda. The 40 young people, 50% Ugandan nationals and 50% South Sudanese refugees, completed spokesperson and advocacy training and conducted a needs assessment in the local community. Both groups identified the neglect and abuse of separated and orphaned children in the communities as the issue they wished to focus on. The young people then conducted their own research – the first ever community-based count of child orphans in the district – and carried out activities to raise awareness and change negative practices impacting children. The project also built bridges between the refugee and host community youth and helped promote young people as peacebuilders in the community.
The groups are on the cusp of achieving tangible sustainable change for orphans and separated children. They have the agreement of local stakeholders, including health workers, teachers and the community, to make changes to be sensitive to orphans’ specific needs and were pursuing the decision makers who have the authority to take these adaptations to a national level. The young people have also established their own community-based organisation called Similar Ground, to run play-based education activities with children and peace building initiatives for older youth. For the orphans, who were identified as the most vulnerable in society, these initiatives by VoiceMore and Similar Ground will be life changing. Therefore, we believe this work has further potential, both within the settlement and for other communities, and would like to partner with Makerere University and the new Rotary Peace Centre to evaluate the progress so far, before the implementation of our proposal which has three parts: 1. The co-creation of a project to strengthen community based protection mechanisms to respond to the needs the young people have identified in the community. 2. The continuation and expansion of the advocacy the young people have been doing to prevent the abuse and neglect of orphans, including engaging key stakeholders in Kampala. 3. Supporting the young people’s organisation to continue their own activities and register as an official Youth Led Community Based Organisation. By continuing to work with the group to co-create a project that strengthens community based protection mechanisms and brings about change locally and nationally through advocacy, we can help support meeting the needs of thousands of orphans in Bidi Bidi and potentially many others further afield. The focus of the activity will be seeking policy and practice change, driven by the community itself, but with the support of the Rotary Peace Centre and Rotarians, to ensures sustainability of outcomes. Finally, we would like to allocate funds to support Similar Ground, to continue and strenthen their operating practices and their education and peace building activities. To do this, we hope to draw on the expertise of all the partners in this proposal to offer mentorship and capacity building to ensure the organisation can best support the community in the years to come. |
| Beneficiaries:
Who are the beneficiares? Please include the estimated number of direct beneficiaries |
· 40 direct VoiceMore programme participants.
· 500 children and youth through Similar Ground play and music based activities. · Indirectly this programme has the potential to positivly impact the lives of thousands of orphans in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement through local advocacy and more widely via national and international advocacy. |