Phoebe Education Fund for Orphans & vulnerable children (PEFO) has a number of programmes through which we can reach the community you can browse through

With a donation of $1 a day, or $30 per month, you can become a child sponsor with PEFO in Uganda, and help give a needy child a good education, shelter, good food and nutrition, clothing, health care and a safe and loving environment to live in.PEFO is seeking individuals, families, churches, organizations, friends and well-wishers from all over the world to consider sponsoring orphans and vulnerable children with a financial donation of $30 per month.

We are asking you to consider supporting PEFO’s efforts to improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children with financial and/or material gift or both, to enable the children attend school and learn life skills.

Please consider supporting PEFO’s child support program, livelihood, housing, health, human rights and economic justice.

You can support the grannies by contributing towards building a house. This can be in terms of money, building material and human resource

Several of our target beneficiaries especially the grannies reside in semi-permanent and grass-thatched houses which are weak, with un-cemented floors, poorly ventilated and crowded rooms which double as kitchens and sometimes shared with animals.

On average, a room is shared by three household members. Considering that most houses of older persons are small, it can be observed that they are crowded. In addition, a significant percentage of older persons and OVC households lack latrines, bathing shelter, use living houses as kitchens. You can donate a house, house donation is a common sense solution that positively impacts the economic and environmental bottom line and has provided hope to several grannies.

Donate play materials for children

Vulnerable children also need to play. It is special for children. Not only is it fun, but it is also important for healthy development. It is their “work” and their way of learning about the world. It erodes the sense of discrimination and brings joy and self-esteem.

Other OVC Projects

Self starters’ (S*) initiative

This is an initiative geared towards nurturing a saving cultureamong OVC. OVC are given animals such as goats and pigs, banana suckersand trees to turn into money. These items are distributed as a mechanism to empower and ready OVC to take on meeting their own education when they enroll for university or vocational education. Prior to receiving these assets, OVC undergo a number of trainings in saving, entrepreneurship and record keeping. The saving is made a voluntary effort and OVC are supported to open up children’s bank accounts in child friendly commercial banks where they save as little as Ugx 10,000 in at least 3 months.

School feeding Program

“Teachers are hungry and teaching hungry children”, was a remark made by school teachers from PEFO partner schools during one of our project review workshop. There is no food in schools, and if it exists its porridge, which may not be adequate for everybody. Children and teachers report not concentrating at school because of hunger, in the afternoon, the number of children that return to class or demonstrate interest in learning gradually diminishes. Teachers too don’t return to teach. This situation which directly linked to the poor implementation of the UPE program in schools made retention of what is learned in class by children extremely difficult. The younger children lost interest in coming to school. Our response to this has been in working with partner government aided schools in rural communities of Jinja and Lira districts to set up school gardens. We provide seeds (maize/corn, beans and vegetables) to schools and farming equipments. PEFO education department makes direct maize flour contribution to these schools too to supplement on poor harvests resulting from unfavorable climate effects.

In Lira district, the department has worked with OVC caregivers to open community land where the caregivers farm maize and beans as contribution to the school mid-day meals. So far, the caregivers’ groups have opened up 3 different pieces of land not less than 3 acres to complement feeding programs in schools attended by their children.

Let the children play

This is a special project implemented in Jinja in 9 partner schools. Play materials including sports and MDD equipments are purchased and distributed to primary schools to promote play activities among children. We also encourage teachers to take part in them as a way of strengthening their relationship with the children.

OVC holiday program

The OVC holiday program is built around counseling, mentorship and career guidance services for OVC. We try to make life meaningful for OVC, we remind them of a great possibility of them attaining a much brighter future if they worked hard. For purposes of emphasis, we re-call graduate OVC who went through the same program yet excelled past university education and other influential persons known to and admired by our OVC. These events are often organized inform of workshops but the afternoon sessions are made special one-one counseling; where OVC seek to speak with s a staff or visiting individuals they feel comfortable with.

PEFO Alumni Association

The organization realized a gap that was increasingly developing between the outgoing students more especially graduates and the organization as their hunt for jobs grows bitter. Because of this, there developed a missing link between the organization and those graduated, leaving no room for the organization to make follow-up on its beneficiaries, therefore the director summoned a meeting to remind the orphans about the organization’s strategic direction (mission and vision) and also get acquainted with each other. In a bid to scaffold each other as orphans, all the beneficiaries that were present during the first meeting agreed to the need for an alumni association through which their views, careers, and help to the future beneficiaries will be disseminated. The need to work as a team and bridge the gap between the beneficiaries and the association propelled the notion of the association. The realization of the benefits of team work even after academics made members of the association propose new meaning of team work upon which its powers and origin will be looted.

CHILD RIGHTS & PROTECTION

Under the education program, PEFO facilitates the promotion of rights of children in schools and communities through child Rights clubs. Our aim is to empower both the children and both teaching and non-teaching staff in partner schools to detect a case of child abuse, prevent it and respond to one when it occurs. Club activities are carried out once every week but the transfer of information and monitoring of behevioural change is an everyday activity especially in classes. The clubs through promotion of free of expression among children have created a platform for children to share issues and incidences occurring in their school which are directly related to club initiatives.

PEFO provides school fees bursaries to HIV/AIDS affected orphans; most of whom live under the care of their grandmothers. In northern Uganda an additional category of war affected children is supported too. PEFO empowers OVC households economically to be able to meet at least 40% of the OVC school fees and additional requirements not met by the projects. Only children from child headed households receive 100% school fees. In addition, OVC receive a minimal school requirement package mainly scholastics (books, pens, mathematical sets, etc).

TREES FOR EDUCATION:

PEFO designed a tree-for-education/pension and environmental conservation initiative (TEPECI) with the aim of creating education and old age insurance using locally available resources. Through the TEPECI initiative pilot project, each of the participating OVC owns between 50 – 200 selected fast growing commercial trees (depending on availability of land). The trees are planted by OVC and their caretakers supervised by PEFO, on respective beneficiary plots of land and, are tended by OVC and caretakers.

The tree-for-education project targets OVC while they are still at lower primary level. As OVC in participating households gradually go through primary and high school education, the planted trees will too, gradually grow into mature logs that are expected to be sold as timber for income at the time when the participating OVC need money to pay for their university or vocational education.

With the trees for pension, the project promotes slow growing Mvule and Musizi indigenous species with a very long life span such that they can only be available for timber use during the old age for the participating youths and can only be used as a source of pension during the old age. Both tree species can be inter-cropped in crop garden with minimal effect on crops. The rational is that you plant trees to reduce financial vulnerability during the old age since Africa still lacks well developed pension mechanisms to support their elderly persons.

Education:

PEFO provides school fees bursaries to HIV/AIDS affected orphans; most of whom live under the care of their grandmothers. In northern Uganda an additional category of war affected children is supported too. PEFO empowers OVC households economically to be able to meet at least 40% of the OVC school fees and additional requirements not met by the projects. Only children from child headed households receive 100% school fees. In addition, OVC receive a minimal school requirement package mainly scholastics (books, pens, mathematical sets, etc).

WINDOW OF HOPE:

Window of Hope is a comprehensive school-based HIV and AIDS life skills intervention. It is targeting young children aged 10 – 14 (primary), aiming at behaviour formation with a special emphasis on responsible sexual behavior.

Most of the children supported by the organization are either HIV infected or affected; they are in fact HIV/AIDS orphaned children. The program helps to empower them manage life as orphans leaving in such unfavorable environments. In the end, the goal is to create a spirit of positivity in them while eliminating self pity as well as preparing OVC to take active role in caring for the HIV positive in their households, schools and communities. Priority of which child benefits from the program is given to children with very low self esteem; those who hardly speak in class or play freely with others during play time. The program is run by teachers with the supervision of PEFO project officers- Education and child protection.

Tour True Uganda (TTU)

A lot of the tourism in Uganda nowadays is focused on seeing the beautiful nature of the country. Travel agencies facilitate these tours but during their travels, tourists don’t really interact with the local people. This makes that tourists miss out on one of the real beauties of Uganda: its people!

PEFO and People4Change came up with the idea to organise tours that include both aspects:

1. Seeing and experiencing the beautiful nature in Uganda
2. Meeting and interacting with the local people

The first aspect is just like the other travel agencies and focuses on the highlights that Uganda has to offer:

Menu (for example):

• Chimp- gorilla trekkings
• Jinja/source of the Nile
• Murchison Falls
• Queen Elizabeth
• Etc…

The second aspect is unique and different from other tours and tour agencies in Uganda. The idea is that tourists can meet and interact with local people by participating in one of the projects of PEFO for a day or a couple of days. Tourists have the possibilities to choose between the different projects that PEFO has.

Menu (for example):

• Agricultural tourism (working with grannies on the PEFO farm school, fishing with a farmer on Victoria lake)
• Economic tourism (building schools/houses, brick making or producing beads & other crafts)
• Cultural tourism (cooking, dancing and drumming with the grannies)
• Organize or participate in the play events with the children.
• Organize any event of your choice but culturally acceptable and with the guidance of PEFO
• Have a work experience in our local partner schools or health centres.

Focus is always placed on the positive initiatives; different from what people see on television. Tourists and local people interact on an equal basis and work together in ‘simple’ activities to be able to share their culture and learn from each other.

USP

By choosing for TTU, tourists will directly sponsor the projects of PEFO. Part of the money paid for the tours will be used in the PEFO projects. Besides that, TTU will train and hire, as much as possible, (young) people educated in/by one of the projects of PEFO to work as a tour guide, driver or whatever staff is needed for the TTU tours. This way, TTU generates income for the PEFO projects but also at the same time provides employment opportunities to the youths. This is one of the USP’s of TTU.

Light up a village

This is a new approach initiated by PEFO to raise awareness of policy makers and the general population on the existence and suffering. The idea is to install a subsidized solar system in the communities; community members are expected to part with a small amount of money deemed affordable for them depending on the poverty status of the different communities covered by PEFO. The project desires to draw the attention of rights bearers and perpetrators to appreciating rights of older persons. This new idea is premised on the success of the housing project.

PEFO’s project areas have less than 1% community members using hydro-electricity (electricity costs a minimum of UGX 524.50 per unit which is way too expensive for vulnerable groups of people). There’s therefore a need to avail granny communities with modern but appropriate and affordable energy to granny communities to stimulate economic development. In addition, this initiative promotes measures for minimizing preventive diseases and destruction of the natural environment. PEFO has a partnership with a more professional solar company (barefoot) to supply the facilities.

Human Rights & Economic Justice

This is a new programming area for PEFO. This is not to mean that PEFO has not been implementing activities geared towards promotion and protection of human rights but that these activities have only been streamlined in other PEFO programmes in the past. This year, PEFO is taking a deliberate effort in up scaling her initiatives towards human rights promotion. This twist of working has been informed by our observation and interaction with grannies which has showed that most of the supported grannies fall victims of injustices due to high ignorance about their rights and justice mechanisms within their communities. This has led to loss of property like land, inability to access and take part in profitable markets, inability to access public health services, and inability to protect vulnerable children especially girls under their care from abuse, and inability to handle and report cases of abuse.

Most of them do not know that it is the duty and obligation of government to extent certain services to them. Grannies’ ignorance about justice mechanisms has been observed to correlate with limiting responsiveness and adherence to interventions by PEFO.

To improve responsiveness and adherence to PEFO interventions, and encourage grannies to utilize available public services, PEFO is planning to raise  awareness on justice mechanisms and initiate micro justice interventions among granny communities.

In our next 5 strategic years, PEFO is planning to; 1) carry outmassive sensitization of grannies on justice mechanisms and rights focusing on clarifying to them what they are entitled to as citizens, 2) In line with sensitization on justice mechanisms PEFO plans to create more platforms on which grannies can express their issues to the public. While PEFO responds to the need to improve the lives of this vulnerable group of grandmothers, this is a duty and obligation of government. Therefore PEFO will engage local government departments in the sensitization exercise and lobby for improvement in service delivery to older persons on top of helping the grannies understand the National policy for older persons and where possible translate them in the local languages for the grannies. The annual beauty contest for grannies will be used as a channel to draw public attention on issues of the elderly.

In the first core area of economic emancipation emphasis will be put on facilitating further development of grannies skills in production of quality crop and animal products, increasing production quantities all this aimed at improving the food security situation and income generation through sale of extra food produced and animals multiplied.

Health

PEFO promotes both preventive and curative measures in granny households to ensure good health. Under public health hygiene and sanitation among grandmothers are maintained through periodical health promotion exercises in the community and with the community where minimum standards are emphasized; latrine, kitchen, drying line, and utensil rack. Until 2013, PEFO has been providing clinical health services to mainly caregivers/grannies through working with other agencies in health service delivery to facilitate direct medication and periodic referrals. Medical camps and mobile clinics are some of the approaches that PEFO uses to make health care accessible and affordable by grannies.

Of recent, PEFO works with government health centres within the proximity of granny communities in a way of empowering them in the long run to respond to the health needs of older persons. One of the major projects here is the Granny Health reserve pool where grannies save UGX 1,000 on a monthly basis. PEFO tops up this fund and uses it to enable grannies access drugs and medication that are not available in government health centres within their communities.

We have been able to establish a productive working relationship with the Jinja district health department. Together, we are working on empowering health workers to serve older persons effectively through numerous trainings, encouraging health centres within Jinja district to develop and implement own older persons’ policies to guide their interaction with and service to older persons. The objective is geared towards behavioral change; that health workers will start looking at older persons with a right to be served and a right to receive quality services just like any other citizen and on the other hand, grannies (older persons), will start appreciating seeking health care from health centres and quit self-medication.