Nyaka

Nyaka was founded in 2001 in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic which left thousands of  children in Uganda without one or both parents.  Grandmothers were left to look after these children, often with little or no access to basic needs.  One morning on a visit to my village in southwest Uganda, I awoke to find grandmothers lined up outside my house; most had walked for miles. The grandmothers, many of whom had known me since childhood, begged me for help. Having experienced poverty and benefited from attending school that my parents struggled to afford, I knew that education was key to success. I decided to invest my life savings of $5,000  in building a school for my village and thus Nyaka began.

Twenty years on, Nyaka continues to thrive. We have big plans for the future: the Elevate Prize would help us to move forward, connect more supporters to our work through increased media coverage and strengthen our programs through mentorship. This prize would allow us to reach more grandmothers, children and survivors and enable the communities we work with to redouble their efforts to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, creating a better future for their communities.

I was born in the village of Nyakagezi, which gives Nyaka its name. I spent my childhood there before going on to further my education at universities in Kampala and the USA. I continue to spend a significant proportion of the year at Nyaka and am deeply connected to the local community. My mother sadly passed away last year, but my father and one of my sisters continue to live at Nyaka along with many of my extended family members who live nearby.

As a child, I observed injustices around me created by poverty, inequality and patriarchy. I  was determined, as an adult, to bring about changes that would alleviate these inequalities and create easy access to basic needs that are a fundamental human right. As Nyaka developed, I have watched my community benefit from the provision of free education, clean water, increased income generation activities, low cost health care and legal action against the perpetrators of sexual and gender based violence with survivors supported at every stage.  

I started Nyaka “for our children’s sake”. This was, and remains, our guiding principle and is fully embraced by everyone who is part of Nyaka both in Uganda and across the world.  

Nyaka offers community-wide programs in Kanungu, Rukungiri and Rubanda Districts. These programs work holistically through a human rights based approach to reduce poverty and enable children to thrive. Our work includes:  

•         Provision of free education  through two primary schools and a secondary vocational school where 774 students receive free uniforms, books and meals

•           A Grandmother Program working with almost 15,000 grandmothers caring for 60,000 children, forming 189 groups led by trained Coordinators. Groups participate in training (finance, health, sanitation, farming techniques), business development through our microfinance program (loans for  small businesses) and  practical help such as the construction of pit latrines and water harvesting tanks. 

•           Nyaka Community Education and Health Programs provide effective health, education, and community development initiatives including a library, health centres and a farm as well as regular radio broadcasts, reaching over 400,000 people, promoting, for example COVID-19 awareness.

•           Nyaka Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) program combats sexual and gender-based violence and provides advocacy, medical, counselling and legal support for survivors.  A new initiative for most African countries, to date it has worked with more than 250 survivors aged from 4 years old to 60.  

Nyaka has always been unique.  Started with my own life savings, I worked tirelessly to attract funding from across the globe and I continue to do so. As a Ugandan who has studied, lived and worked in other countries, I have a unique perspective. I recognised the injustices created by poverty, gender inequality and exacerbated by the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. My community asked me for help and I worked hard to support them and connect them to donors across the world, who share my vision. Nyaka pioneers community-led initiatives to empower grandmothers  to improve their own lives and those of the children in their care. Our focus is to continually introduce new ideas and technology to these groups, such as mobile money to enhance business transactions.  We promote environmental consciousness and have the ability to reach large numbers of community members and address their self identified needs. Nyaka’s SGBV Program has seen more than 50  perpetrators brought to justice, sending a message to the community that Enough is Enough. Nyaka provides safe spaces for survivors as well as a community education program that reinforces the message that sexual abuse and domestic violence will not be tolerated.  

Nyaka's vision is a world where all vulnerable and underserved children have the knowledge, skills and opportunities they need to grow and prosper. Our holistic, human rights based approach allows us to support and empower the Nyaka community through our programs and additional activities. We create life changing impact through our work, including: 

More than 60,000 children live in a loving family environment with grandmothers to whom they may or not be related; they are not in an orphanage.  Children regularly attend school and have the opportunity to progress to further education or meaningful employment.  “I truly appreciate the biggest bridge I got..  Without it I would be nothing now.  All Nyaka students no longer cry that we are orphans as he [Jackson] has made us live like we have parents” (Former Nyaka student, now studying at Makerere University). 

The microfinance program sees grandmothers start new businesses with a 97% repayment rate, demonstrating greater income generating capacity and more money for  families leading to an improved quality of life. Communities feel safer knowing that the perpetrators of SGBV will face justice and that survivors will receive support, thus increasing confidence to report crimes that would otherwise have gone unnoticed

Nyaka directly serves approximately 70,000 people per year with a breakdown as follows: 

• 20,000 grandmothers who have direct caring responsibility for an estimated 80,000 children, many of whom they may not be biologically related to. These children are indirectly served as their carers are part of the Grandmother program.(Please note, since Elevate Round 1, we have recruited an additional 5,000 grandmother carers in the district of Rubanda).  

• 763 students in 2 primary schools and a secondary and vocational school

• 120 survivors of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV).  We anticipate that we will support 200 survivors in 2021 alone; we provide ongoing support to survivors through counselling and legal advocacy.

• Approximately 4800 clinic consultations per year

• Approximately 4000 community  library visits per year 

• 43,000 community members benefit from Nyaka’s gravity fed clean water system each year

Nyaka  also reaches an estimated 400,000 people via educational radio programming and community events such as the walk against SGBV.

Education Impact Goal

To provide a comprehensive educational package for the students who attend Nyaka schools to enable them learn, grow and thrive

 Grandmothers Impact Goal

To provide an holistic service to empower 20,000 Nyaka grandmothers to increase their income generation potential by, for example, starting small businesses,  enabling them to better provide for themselves and the children in their care 

SGBV Impact Goal

To provide high quality Prevention (education, awareness raising) and Response programs (medical care, counselling, and legal advocacy) to survivors of SGBV and the wider community via four healing centres and community outreach

Health Impact Goal

To provide low cost medical care and community health education via 2 Nyaka clinics and through extensive  community outreach work.

We will  achieve these goals by continually improving our planning, communications, staff development, monitoring, and evaluation processes and by keeping abreast of local, national and international best practice to ensure that all our services are delivered to the highest standards and  meet the needs of our beneficiaries.

A significant barrier to Nyaka’s work is the cost of getting high speed, high quality internet access to our sites. Reliable internet access would transform our work and the lives of the Nyaka community, enabling staff to deliver programming more quickly and efficiently, develop their IT skills and interact with supporters across the world. Students would access internationally recognised academic content. Our libraries/IT labs would educate the wider community on a range of academic, agricultural, health and general knowledge content. 

Our aim is to implement cashless transfers for our microfinance loans to Nyaka grandmothers. Mobile money is widely used in Uganda, but is less common in poorer rural communities due to the cost of cell phones. Mobile money is easy to use, allows for more regular fund delivery, and is more secure for grandmothers and the staff distributing the funds.

Improved technology would lead us to progress towards  our goals of providing education and supporting employment and income generation for the whole Nyaka community. Both these interventions would decrease physical contact and are ideal modes of working during the pandemic, helping to reduce transmission for both staff and program participants, whilst increasing technology skills and enabling income generation.

The opportunities available to Prize winners would afford a unique opportunity for both Nyaka as an organisation and myself as a leader to identify and develop new networks,  partners and collaborators to help us take our work to the next level. We have put a lot of work into developing our Marketing and Communications plan, but with our new UK registration and our upcoming Canada registration, we still have a long way to go to reach new audiences and build our social media presence globally. We would relish the opportunity to share ideas and models of best practice as well as being able to learn from the successes, challenges and experiences of other leaders and organisations. It would be particularly exciting to take advantage of the mentorship package to support our learning and development, especially as we have such a diverse and geographically dispersed team. We are keen to learn from other NGOs, charities and businesses in order to shape  and to develop our expertise in planning, monitoring and evaluation and communications in particular.

Our leadership team has always embraced diversity, equity and inclusivity.  Two thirds of our leadership team are Ugandan, female or both. I, Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, Nyaka Founder and CEO am Ugandan and am from the village of Nyakagezi, where Nyaka’s work began.  Our Country Director and the Country Team, based in Kampala,  are all Ugandan and predominantly female. Our 100 field staff are all Ugandan with a small number being former Nyaka students.

Nyaka has an Equal Opportunities policy which has been agreed by the Board of Directors  and is circulated to all staff.  It states that Nyaka will not discriminate against or harass any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, or status with regard to public assistance.

The Leadership Team has an ethos of enablement meaning that all staff have a voice, their views are respected and everyone feels equal and valued as part of the Nyaka family.

Nyaka works to support whole communities with a focus on grandmothers, children and survivors of sexual and gender based violence and we are welcoming to all regardless of race, religion and gender.

Nyaka is  well positioned for a number of reasons:

• Ugandan- led and majority Ugandan staff 

• Locally rooted and highly responsive to community identified needs

• Deep understanding of the context and challenges 

• Trusted and respected by the local community

• Well established with donors and foundations in the US (and building a donor community in the UK)

• Able to share stories of the Nyaka experience and inspire donors to partner with us to continue building our vision 

• Well connected to district, local and national government bodies

• Nyaka has been in existence for 20 years

My lived experiences from my time in the village, despite the number of years I have now lived in the USA, continue to shape my thinking.  I am proud of what I have achieved and what Nyaka has, and continues to achieve.

The vast majority of Nyaka’s staff are in Uganda; almost all our staff work in Kanungu, Rukungiri and Rubanda districts. For 20 years, I have been based in the USA with frequent travel to Uganda. I have therefore managed Nyaka’s teams and work from afar. 

I  know how to mobilize financial resources and manpower smarter than I am to get the job done. I have substantial experience of motivating local people to become change-makers by perfecting models that demonstrate successful outcomes. I continue to both learn and unlearn whenever necessary in order to grow. I try to share my lived experiences with others. Having run a transparent and successful global non-profit organization and managed hundreds of employees in another country, I feel confident in sharing my experience of fundraising, public speaking, human rights, and telling one’s own story to inspire others to act. 

My aim is to  lead by example. For example, I ensured that I had received the COVID-19 vaccines before travelling to Uganda where I know many people are reluctant to have it.  By recounting this to both staff and Nyaka beneficiaries, I was able to instil confidence in people to take it when it is offered.

CORNERSTONE Documentary 

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qEzML...

CNN Heroes

https://edition.cnn.com/videos...

2 min overview from 2017 - Angel of Africa Award 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5z_Gisw1zM

TED x talk- A School for my Village

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ROsR353Q8

2018 eTown eChievement Award

Time Magazine The Power of One series. It Takes Children to Raise a Village 

http://content.time.com/time/v...

Funding would allow us to work towards equality of access to technology for grandmothers, students  and the Nyaka community as a whole through reliable internet and cashless money transfers. This would support skills development and income generation, empowering communities to access opportunities and lift themselves out of poverty. Increased access to education and technology will transform the lives of the entire Nyaka community. 

Funding will also enable us to strengthen our capacity and develop mechanisms and processes so as to further develop existing practices, such as our monitoring and evaluation systems.  This would also enable us to look at our service delivery to determine whether we are meeting needs in the most effective way and also to examine what works well, what may need to be changed and the form that change would take. We would also review staff training and development to ascertain how staff, the organisation and beneficiaries could benefit from continued professional development, in, for example Safeguarding.

Nyaka is a respected, trusted and recognised brand, supported by local communities. Nyaka is well connected with the Ugandan Government and the district authorities of Health (local government facilities host our 4 SGBV healing centers), Education (which works with our schools), and District Agricultural Officers (who conduct training for grandmother groups). The District sees Nyaka as an important development partner and has recognized Nyaka’s crucial work with grandmother caregivers, children and SGBV survivors.  Nyaka’s staff were identified as essential workers during the 2020 lockdown and provided with permits to continue work with vulnerable community members. 

We have long-standing partnerships with a Foundations including Segal Family,  Stephen Lewis, Epic and Imago Dei. We partner with Beautiful World Canada to administer university scholarships for students.Our University partners include Shenandoah, Vancouver Island and Columbia. I recently applied for the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard.  

We regularly work in partnership with other schools and NGOs to deliver our programs and activities. For example, our annual Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) camp involves local schools and is delivered in partnership with Oysters for Pearls. We are currently formalising relationships with several national and international NGOs including Childs I Foundation and Raising the Village.