We begin by listening to our community. Our community consists of local NGOs, Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and community members, universities, students, alumni, staff, donors, and socially responsible companies. We listen to what each is seeking to accomplish and what they have to offer. We identify community priorities and build programs from there.
We work with a wide range of grassroots community development organizations addressing important issues for their community, such as access to clean water, sustainable agriculture, income generation, education, gender equity, and health care. The FSD Jinja-Uganda staff are members of the community which ensures they always are up to date on issues facing their community.
The agenda is set by local community development organizations. They put forward their ideas and initiatives to improve the quality of life in their community. FSD Jinja-Uganda then works with them to mobilize human resources, funds, skills, and knowledge to support those locally-led initiatives.
FSD Jinja-Uganda works with universities, companies, civic groups, and individuals interested in engaging in collaborative, on-the-ground development work alongside local grassroots leaders. FSD Jinja-Uganda provides training and orientation to students and volunteers as well as facilitates ongoing learning and reflection. In each participant placement, FSD Jinja-Uganda blends the interests and talents of people with local knowledge and expertise to develop and implement sustainable development projects in the community.
To complement this flow of human resources and the accompanying knowledge exchange, FSD Jinja-Uganda offers two kinds of grant programs. First, is a competitive grant fund administered by FSD Jinja-Uganda itself. Second, we provide seed funding to community development organizations in our program site.
Through our model, we strive to provide opportunities for all those who care about building a more just and sustainable future to engage in this vital work. Find out how you can get involved here
FSD Jinja-Uganda has supported more than 500 International and local interns, volunteers, and Philanthropists to carry out structured development internships with Local Community Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in Uganda. We partner with more than 40 local organizations specialized in various development disciplines to support/provide our global development learners with relevant skills and experience in specific development sectors that match the learners’ education background, interests, and talent. We emphasize that global learners (interns, volunteers, and philanthropists) work within the partner organizations’ program frameworks to sustain the local content and encourage learners to use their knowledge, talent, passion, interest, and skills to give new sustainable dimensions to our local organizations' endeavors. All this is preceded by rigorous orientation and spaced with development training workshops on sustainable development ethics for both learners and the local community.