Hey hey hey!
Happy new year to you!!
We hope you’re keeping well, warm and are believing for lower fuel prices in the very near future; because we are.
Can you believe it’s 2022? No? You’re not alone. It feels like we’re just coming out of 2019. Round of applause for making it this far though. You braved so much and you’re wiser now than you were in 2019. Back to reality. It’s 2022; we closed 2021 with a bang
We got up to so much in 2021!! Join us down memory lane for a quick recap;
In January of 2021, Uganda had elections. Elections in Uganda usually come with unwarranted violence and loss of lives; and so in order to counter this, Uganda Unites partnered with WAKE, a poet, to create Here I Am, a poem aimed at sensitizing Ugandan youth to stay away from violent reactions to political matters and instead uphold non violence. We also ran an “I am my brother’s keeper” campaign on social media to keep every Ugandan looking out for his/ her neighbor. We’d like to say that the election went swimmingly. No violence was registered and that’s a win for us.
In February 2021, we ran our annual Valentine’s day fundraiser and we were able to raise about USD 105.50 which funds were used in peace club mentorship.
Fast forward to July ’21 when the president instituted a 42-day nationwide lockdown. In response, we ran a relief drive, where we requested Ugandans to donate towards supporting families of teachers and daily wage earners in the country who live hand-to-mouth. We collected UGX 2,415,000 ($684) used to support more than 80 households in the urban slums of Kampala.
In partnership with the Robert Katende Initiative, Uganda Unites donated 30% of the funds raised towards supporting the Health Workers’ Fund which exists to support the families of health workers at the frontline of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Uganda Unites saw nine (9) Ugandans participate in platform NextGen, an international oratory competition where youth between 18 and 22 years speak out on challenges they face as a result of the COVID pandemic and two of those participants; Elizabeth Kisaaka and Martha Kisakye, were runner up. Elizabeth actually went ahead to win a Janzi Award for best blog based off of her submission for the oratory competition. We love to see it!
Listen! We participated in a global giving accelerator in September where we were expected to raise $5,000 from a minimum of forty (40) donors within fourteen (14) days. Our aim for raising the $5,000 was to facilitate the mentorship and training of 700 youth in the seven (7) sub regions of Uganda.
The cool part is, because we were able to raise the $5000, we graduated to the Global Giving platform which guaranteed us access to trainings and new supporters from all across the globe! This not only increases our visibility, but our credibility as well. We are so excited about what this means for us in this new year!
We made new friends in 2021 with whom we partnered to make our trainings more fun and also increase our reach. Among our newest partners was the Phoenix project, a project that advocates for mindfulness and mental wellness through the use of calendars and journals. Esther Kalenzi, founder of the Phoenix project led some Uganda Unites’ youth through a training on how to use these journals to reimagine their future given the pandemic.
To sum it up, these were our numbers for 2021;
As you can see, 2021 was really eventful for us. We got up to so much rewarding work and we can’t wait for what 2022 has in store for us. we would never have made it this far without your help and for that we are extremely grateful to you for tagging along with us on this journey! we do not take it for granted. Seriously, thank you for being here!
Are you interested in becoming part of the Uganda Unites family? Reach out to us on any of our social media platforms for more information
- On Twitter @UgandaUnites
- On Instagram @ugunites
- On Facebook @Uganda Unites
We are excited to hear from you!
LOOKING TO DONATE?
You can make a contribution via Mobile Money +256 753 256 256/ +256 777 193 617 or via Flutterwave on the “Donate now” link in the upper right corner