Center for Community Transformation.

Make an Effort

P.o.Box 18 Mubende- Uganda

Tel: 256 702 369 644 / 256 782 400 523

Email: zzirabae@gmail.com

Center for Community Transformation Concept Paper

Background

The center is planned to be established in Kibyayi village in Mubende district by starting transformation projects aimed at changing community livelihoods. There is a distance of approximately 185 kilometers from Uganda’s capital city – Kampala. The centers’ approach to transformation will be a holistic one because the community is made up of different people, of different age groups, cultures and different transformation needs.

Kibyayi Village community lies below the famous Nakayima hills  and  a surface water source commonly called “Kateebe’’ in the local language- literally referring to a very deep water source that has to be approached with maximum care. The National Water and Sewerage Corporation now own and uses it to supply the main town of Mubende with piped water.   Despite that most of the people still depend heavily on rain water and water from shallow wells. It has 2 primary schools which are privately owned, one being catholic founded and the other was started by one of the local businessman. Others are found in the neighboring communities. The quality of education offered however, leaves a lot to be desired.  The center hopes to use these schools and others as some of the facilities to drive the community transformation campaign.

The community has no secondary school, no vocational school, no health facility.  The people in the community engage in subsistence farming, basically digging for home consumption, in some cases even they do not have enough for home consumption. In some families children are preferred by parents to digging and fishing than going to school. They attribute this to the fact that most families fail to get their children through primary education. Something strategic has to be done and it must involve the community members.

The Problem or Need

For someone who has not seen the situation with his or her own eyes, or heard from a person who has been on ground and has lived with the community, it’s hard to imagine the wretched conditions in which majority of people are living in. Many children of school going age are not studying but instead loitering all over; with basically no hope of going or even continuing with school. As a result many children and young people have been exposed to several un wanted trends like early marriages, being exploited through child labor, being abducted mistreated, committed and at times sacrificed by the witch doctors. Others get involved in unproductive behavior such as stealing, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, moving to the urban areas to practice prostitution and other bad community vices.  Eventually, children end up being less productive to the community and the country at large. For those attending school, the quality of education they get is poor. As such many of them leave primary seven when they can hardly read and comprehend anything (especially those in government schools); thus majority cannot express themselves well! Pupils lack adequate scholastic materials, do not have school uniforms, while at school they study on empty stomachs which makes it extremely hard for them to conceptualize whatever they are being taught. The diseases that constantly hit these children increase their absenteeism at school. To worsen matters, even the quality of teachers is equally not to the required standard as well as the structures. The education they receive is basically theoretical.

Many homes and families cannot afford the basics of life.   An average home usually has seven children excluding adults. Surprisingly, majority of house hold heads earn less than US$1 a day amidst several family financial demands! The community mainly depends on rain water and water from shallow wells and the nearby surface lake/ dam. This largely contributes to the rampant water bone diseases suffered by the people in the community. The situation is made worse with the lack of adequate health facilities to address the disease problems. The only health facility nearby is the Mubende  regional referral hospital which by its design and focus deals mostly referral cases. Even the referred cases do not get adequate treatment; they end up being referred again to  Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala. Continuous referrals are majorly due to inadequate drugs, limited medical personnel and equipments. The locals in the community therefore end up doing self medication using locally known traditional herbs to treat diseases while others live with their diseases. As a result HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Diarrhea, Tuberculosis, Injuries Pneumonia and many more has killed many of our people.

Other problems include inability of families and households to produce saleable items to the market economy, impassable community roads, and unprotected water sources, broken down bore holes, high crime rate.

Why the Center is needed

The center hopes to provide children and young people with good education; while at the same time identifying children’s potential skills/talents for further development; this will reduce on having general education of students, because currently students are studying because they have to go school – no wonder majority leave colleges and universities when actually they are not skilled in anything! Employing them requires the employer to train them gain if they are benefit their institutions! The center will also provide Health care facilities and programs in order to reduce death caused by most preventable diseases in the area. The center shall promote agriculture and farming in the community to curb famine and raise on household income levels. The center together with the community members shall identify specific crops to roll on the farming projects. The center shall promote practical vocational training to senior four and senior six drop outs because of its perceived life sustainability abilities to those trained.  The center will undertake to identify students talents and skills at an early age so that they are developed to best benefit the student, their families, community and the entire country. The center will undertake to identify partners to do this better. The center will also address environmental problems. To start with the center will ensure planting of trees on the bare hills in the village to boost the climatic conditions of the area. The center will also promote planting more trees especially the fruit trees on family land which households already have.

If the center works on the above mentioned issues it will create and form a basis for the families   to be able to support their children and even influence change in the entire community in a positive and desired way. In the first phase of the children sponsorship program, the Center intends to sponsor children’s education in good Ugandan schools at primary, secondary Vocational level. Sponsorship at University level will mainly be for  practical courses that will add value to the community.  

In the long term, the Center will have established its own schools and vocational institutes to demonstrate in a more practical way how to cause community transformations at reduced costs. This will be possible because at that time we shall have many of our own trained carders who will walk in line with the centers vision and mission. The element of community transformation will be an inherent principle in all our programs and projects.

In summary, the center is intended to act as a catalyzing agent in the entire process of community transformation.

Operation of the Center

 The Center plans to handle its work in phases and on a step by step basis. The center is expected to have several programs and projects that will transform our community. Center based activities will have a direct connection with field activities. Among other activities will be coordination. Different project officers and personnel will report to the project supervisors, coordinators, program heads and to the respective departments and committees. Departmental, program and committee heads will be answerable to the Center Executive Committee headed by the Executive Director whom in turn will be answerable to the funders, Donors  and Board of Trustees.

Center for Community Transformation

Work plan for 2015;

Activity description	Implementation Time				Budget (funds will come from)	Responsibility center	Comments/Assumptions
	Quarter 1 (Jan-March	Quarter 2 (Apr-May)	Quarter 3 (Jun-July)	Quarter 4 (Aug-Dec.)
Mobilization, Lobbying, Advocacy, Sensitization & programming					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	This activity will core and central to all our program and project work
Education Sponsorship					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	The center hopes to education sponsorship 150 students in 2015
Holiday Reading Camps					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	We will have reading camps during school holidays
Community Health Camps					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	Community Health camps will take place at the beginning of the year and mid year
Bulungi bwansi campaigns					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	This will be done once every month on all generally used facilities by the community
Community transformation clubs in Schools					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	CCT activities will take place during the 1st Month of the term in collaboration with the School administration
Promotion of safe water campaign					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	Emphasis will put on community water sources & encouraging water harvesting for homes
Promotion of House hold production for the market economy					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	This will be a continuous activity
Volunteering					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	This program will continuous and ongoing, it will be key in all our programs
Formation of CCT Jjajja, Youth, Women and Leaders Clubs					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	These will be used to cater for the different community transformation needs across age, sex, culture and role
Recreational Activities					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	To search for  children talents and promote them, communicate our message
Review Meetings					Cecot Center & well wishers	Cecot Center	There will review and planning meetings as and when needed

Sponsored students as a requirement will come back to the community and help it transform and develop. In so doing they will even help those adults who may not have got a chance in their young age to acquire practical skills through on job learning, couching and mentoring.

  

What Your support can Do.

Supporting the work Cecot Center can result in several   out comes.

Education

ü US$5 can buy books for one student for a full term of 3months.

ü US$10 can buy us a pair of shoes for a child both at school and in holidays for a full year;

ü US$20 buy a child school uniform to put on for a full academic year.

ü US$180 can pay for one student for one term of 3months in a good primary school.

ü US$280 can pay for a student at a Vocational training Institute for on semester; to study electrical Installation, Tailoring and fashion design, carpentry and Joinery or Motor vehicle mechanics.

Health education campaigns

ü US$50 can buy 600 Ad Syringes 10ml+ Needle Disp. Detached used in several medical testings

ü US$30 can be used to hire a projector to use in our heath education campaigns – to display in large format

ü US$20 can be used to hire 100 plastic chairs to train community members at the center.

ü US$50 can be used to buy a potable table used in our field community health activities

ü US$70 can be used to facilitate Doctors and nurses during our health campaign for a one month

ü US$60 can be used to hire a generator to power our training equipments like computers, projector etc for a month

ü US$50 can used to buy stationary required in our health activities

ü US$100 can be used to buy testing kits for HIV/AIDS

ü US$ 100 can used to buy Panadol and coatem for malaria tested patients

ü US$1000 can buy 300 mosquito nets to be given to families/households to prevent malaria whose effects in children has short- and long-term neurocognitive performance, including attention, memory, visio-spacial skills, and language functioning; Malaria kills between 70,000 and 100,000 children every year. Its responsible for 14% of all hospital death ( yet not all people go hospital!) 95% of the population is at malaria risk in the country. 87% malaria cases are in rural areas but receive less treatment. At the moment our population is 36 million with 50% under 15years!

In summary

I appeal to you to stand with Center Community Transformation, come 2015.We hope go away from the temporary tents and construct offices on our already acquired land to bring out our image as a center. The center hopes to have at least 15 students enrolled in good schools and 5 vocational training institutes.  To cover at least 10 schools with our health educations activities on common diseases that affect the community. The center welcomes volunteers to participate in our activities and programs as and when they have time.

Your support to the center will motivate us more than anything and we continue working for a better and transformed community.

The center is committed to a transparent accountability of all donations and grant sent to us for the implementation of our activities.

At the center we believe everything is possible when you make an effort

 For Details please Contact:

Emmanuel K. Zirabamuzaale

Founder / Director

Center for Community Transformation

Email:  zzirabae@gmail.com

Tel; 256 (0)702 369 644 / 256782 400 523

Skype: Zziraba Emmanuel