In November 2015, the Support Association for self-help in Uganda was awarded a grant of DKK 386,799 from the Civil Society Fund for the project “ Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children’s Households Development Project Kanungu ”, ref. 15-1712-MP Sep, briefly called the OVC project. The total budget for the project was DKK 399,999. It ran from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017 and was carried out in collaboration with partner organization Mend the Broken Hearts Uganda (MBHU), which accounted for most of the academic effort. The role of the support association in addition to supervision and administration was the dissemination of messages on human rights, equal rights and opportunities for all, and the strengthening of marginalized groups.

Project summary:
The OVC project is a development project for orphans and other vulnerable children (OVCs) and their parents in the very poor Kanungu in Uganda. The purpose of the project was to increase the well-being and living conditions of these children and caregivers through strengthening their rights, opportunities and concrete sustainable income-generating projects. The approach was based on mobilizing civil society and organizing self-help groups among the weakest households with vulnerable children. A wide focus was placed on the rights of these children and their guardians and created a culture of respect and support among people, organizations and authorities. The households were developed through the projects created and run by the self-help groups themselves, in order to become self-sustaining and to have the resources to care for the children properly. Two groups of projects were established in each of 30 villages with the participation of over 1500 guardians and children.

Goal:
The overall goal of the project was to increase and maintain the well-being of orphans and other vulnerable children in Kanungu Town Council.

In addition, there were the following two specific project objectives:

1. By the end of the two-year project, all citizens and political leaders in the local community as well as civil society organizations in contact with the project are aware of the rights, human rights and equality concepts of OVC and are actively involved in protecting them.
2. By the end of the two-year project, 60 groups of OVC households in Kanungu Town Council are able to generate a steady income that can meet their basic needs, including: food, education, medical care and clothing.

Impact of project objective 1

• Direct communication to approx. 5000 people on rights through dialogue meetings and training meetings with key people and citizens in general.
• Locals throughout the action area are made aware of rights, especially vulnerable children (OVCs) and women, and their commitment to protect them.
• People have been trained in claiming rights, and this has led to a significant increase in the number of reports, clearances and solutions for cases of rights violations. Individuals as well as household groups stand together and formulate claims, make reviews and plead right when they face oppression and injustice.
• All OVCs in the project groups go to school.
• The local organization MBHU and its opportunities for action have been strengthened through good collaborations established with authorities and other organizations.

Impact of project objective 2

• 60 self-help groups of OVC households with a total of about 600 parents and 1460 vulnerable children have been formed and trained in the 30 villages in the area.
• All groups work independently with savings-loan activity and run their self-selected income-generating projects (primarily pig, goat and chicken teams and vegetable cultivation) after receiving start-up capital and professional assistance for this.
• Most groups are very well-functioning with good benefits from income-generating projects and sensible savings-loan activity, and through the initiatives, households have increased their living standards.
• At the end of the project, 63% of households earned at least DKK 270 a month against only 6% before its start. This means that households have more resources to care for the orphans and provide them with medicine/medical care and schooling/education.
• Through the savings-loan initiatives initiated, which enable smaller investments, several groups have, on their own initiative, made new projects and improvements / extensions of existing activities.
• Local associations of groups have been formed where through interaction, experience exchange and reinforcement are achieved (unity, more resources, stronger advocacy).

Representatives from the Danish partner The Self-Help Support Association in Uganda visited the project in July 2016 and contributed to raising awareness among local people about the rights of OVCs, etc. i.a. six villages. The Danish representatives conveyed human rights and principles of equality and their promotion and assertion through a radio broadcast, several speeches at a conference with about 500 listeners and dialogue sessions with residents of five villages (about 500 people).

At the end of December 2017, representatives from the Support Association also visited evaluation visits in four villages, where they met with groups from the local associations and visited selected households with income-generating projects. The project manager (Chairman of the Support Association) also performed financial supervision on this occasion, as did the Danish representatives in the project’s final stakeholder meeting, where local politicians and officials, etc. from the highest levels also participated.