Volunteer in Empowering the Children and Youth of Uganda

Enabling Young People Develop  




Welcome to our Website

GIDEONS YOUTH ORGANISATION

-Uganda

Our History:

Gideons Youth Organization-GYO is a not-for-profit grass-roots organization operating in Wakiso Sub-county in Wakiso district and registered by the government of Uganda. It was stated in 2003 with the premise that every young person has a right to live and grow in a stable environment; in an atmosphere of happiness, love, understanding and security; that every child and youth has the basic human right to education, healthcare, adequate shelter, food and clothing.

We are dedicated to bringing opportunities to the underprivileged and vulnerable children and youth through six key program areas:

1) REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

2) HIV/AIDS

3) EDUCATION

4) ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

5) CHILD RIGHTS ADVOCACY

6) EVANGELISM

Our work is in response to the vulnerability of the children and young people in Wakiso Sub- county and indeed country wide to social, economic and health related problems such as changing family forms, poverty, HIV/AIDS, early motherhood, high costs of education, discrimination, and lack of participation in decision making processes which undermine their capacity to live healthy and productive lives.

Our area of Operation:

 Wakiso Sub-county,Wakiso District. Wakiso is a district of vast oriental regions with a population estimated at close to 1million people (Census 2002). Figures that make up the population differ widely in the 16 Sub-counties that form Wakiso district. Wakiso Sub County has 14 parishes and several villages.

The Sub-county has a total population of 65,434pple (estimated at 70,000 to date) of which 16,702 (est. at 20,000) reside in the Town Council area that covers 10 villages.The young people account for 78% (30 yrs below) and 56% (18 yrs below) of the above statistics. Most of the Sub-county is local community setting with similar challenges that typically affect villages in Uganda and Africa in general – poverty, HIV/AIDS, Orphan children, food and income insecurity, illiteracy, etc.

Our Set up:

Gideons Youth Organization-GYO executive team constitute 6 people- Director, Secretary, Administrator, Finance officer, Programs officer and the Centre manager who hold regular meetings to plan, budget, implement and monitor activities assisted by an active team of 10 volunteers.Three (3) senior adults form the management Board that gives advisory support to the organization and approve work plans and budgets.

In order to break the cycle of poverty, its important that we invest in welfare of each child- in food health and education.Working statistics show that 95% of the world population growth takes place in developing countries. 1/3 of this growth stems from unwanted pregnanciesGYO helps young people in Uganda to free themselves from poverty and disease. Unemployment, unwanted pregnancies, and AIDS are worsening poverty and lead to the death of many children and youth. Supporting sexual and reproductive health education and family planning and economic empowerment initiatives are focal issues we address.

We are committed to raise awareness about poverty, health and unemployment in our community and the Nation and we are devoted to finding creative ways of helping the children and youth to face these realities with courage, hope and faith.We want to contribute to the socio-economic transformation of our community and foster overall National development.

World wide, about 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty. They have to get by on less than one US dollar per day and rapid population growth and poor health care greatly contribute to poverty in many developing countries.

In order to fight poverty, its necessary to invest in sexual and reproductive health and family planning. This makes the children and youth very vulnerable to many health and economic-related problems.