Intern or Volunteer with a Women's Empowerment Organization in Uganda

  Uganda

Jinja

Term: Academic Year, Fall, Spring, Summer, Throughout the year, Trimester, Winter 
Durations of Program: 1-2 weeks, 2-4 weeks, 5-8 weeks, 9-12 weeks, 3-6 months and 7-12 months
Typical Duration of Program: 9-12 weeks
Dates: See FSD Website

Description: Examples of how you can support Women's Empowerment in Uganda:

* Teach socio-economically excluded women about how micro-credit lending programs are structured, how to productively use loan funds, and how to manage savings and repayment schedules. Aid lending program with training for loan repayment record-keeping and general bookkeeping.

* Support training for women, orphans, and vulnerable children in income generating activities such as tree planting, biogas use, poultry-raising, and small scale merchandising.

* Assist a network of eighteen women's groups in the Mbale community who educate fellow community members on relevant issues such as home care, HIV/AIDS, first aid, and income generating projects such as raising goats. The purpose of the project is to offer women better tools in caring for orphaned children.

* Aid a Young Mothers Program by helping attract sponsors for mothers under the age of eighteen to pay for schooling. Develop and facilitate vocational workshops and create vocational skills manuals for young mothers. Support training of mothers on successful income-generating activities and micro-enterprises.

* Assist with home visits for life skills education offered to teenage mothers on topics such as preventative health education, nutrition and balanced diet, sexual and reproductive health and behavior, HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, etc. Also assist with home visits for testing and counseling of HIV/AIDS.

For more opportunities in women's empowerment in Uganda, visit our website or contact us directly.

About FSD

The Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1995 to support underserved, international communities in a collaborative and sustainable manner. Our model incorporates three overlapping programs:

1. Sustainable Development Training Programs for Interns and Volunteers
FSD provides comprehensive training and immersion programs for interns and volunteers seeking hands-on experience in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Program participants come from countless professions and more than 300 universities worldwide to collaborate with our partner organizations on community-driven projects that reflect sustainable practices.

2. Grantmaking to Projects and Initiatives Led By Our Partner Organizations
Donations and grants given to FSD are used to support projects and initiatives implemented by our partner organizations, site teams, interns, and volunteers.

3. Sustainable Development of Community-Based Organizations
Our professional field staff, consultants, and program participants provide on-site technical training and capacity building to more than 200 community-based organizations.

Highlights: Community Issues Addressed by FSD in Uganda
Women of Uganda face a wide range of challenges including discrimination, low social status, lack of economic self sufficiency, and greater risk of HIV/AIDS infection. In Uganda, as in many African countries, gender discrimination means that women must submit to a lower social status than men. For many women, this reduces their power to act independently, become educated, avoid poverty, and/or escape abuse. Many girls and young women become coerced into sex or can be obliged to trade sex for economic survival. It is common for girls to become sexually active at a much younger age than men, causing the rise of HIV and AIDS to become even more pronounced. Older men are breaking long established social customs and choosing younger and younger girls to become their sexual partner in order to avoid catching HIV. In doing so, they are in fact infecting them with the virus. In some districts, HIV prevalence among 13-19 year old girls is at least ten times higher than in males of the same age.

Much development work in the region is geared towards promoting gender equality and relieving women of the hardships relating to their position in society. Along with these, FSD trains women of all ages in jobs skills and micro-enterprise creation and development. Through these programs, women have the opportunity to acquire micro-loans and build their own business ventures, thus allowing for greater economic independence. Your work in supporting any of our empowerment programs will put you in direct contact with the challenging struggle to secure equality and opportunity for women.

Minimum Education: High School

Cost in US$: Depends on Program Selected; See FSD Website

Experience Required: no

Typical Volunteer: FSD supports participants who boldly wish to initiate the change they believe is necessary in the developing world. Interns are passionate about sharing their practical knowledge, heart-felt enthusiasm, and economic resources with communities abroad that suffer unnecessary hardship. They wish to gain hands-on, grassroots development experience because they believe change is most powerfully cultivated on a community level. The aim is to experientially learn how their work can empower the community toward applying sustainable development solutions, rather than increasing reliance on foreign aid. Participants choose FSD because the program structure enables them to design and implement their own sustainable projects in collaboration with their host organization and the FSD Site Team. They are able to test their ideas and theories in the most direct way possible, giving them the experience and knowledge they seek. The flexibility of the host organizations allows for participants at all stages and levels of experience in international development to participate, thus opening the programs to a diverse group of capable applicants.

Age Range: 18-75

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants. This Program is also open to Couples and Individuals

Participants Travel to Uganda Independently

Typically Participants Work in Groups of 3-10

Application Process Involves:

• Letters of Reference
• Phone Interview
• Resume
• Written Application

Post-Program Services Include:

• Alumni Network

Foundation for Sustainable Development's Mission Statement: FSD supports the efforts of grassroots organizations in the developing world that are working to better their communities, environments, and the economic opportunities around them. We believe community development is only sustainable if it empowers the people to effectively use and cultivate their own resources in a conscious manner. Through our programs, we aim to raise international awareness of the economic challenges in developing countries and to support cross-cultural communities in finding more effective solutions to development issues.

Year Founded: 1995