Wilmat Development Foundation

BACKGROUND:

Wilmat Development Foundation is a Non-Profit Organization that was founded in 2014 with the main goal of providing practical education to the underprivileged community people in Uganda. We believe education is the way out of poverty and further improve their living conditions through sustainable development programs by integrating them in the society and helping them to find the best solutions to the entrenched problems affecting them in their respective communities. Our experience is based on the reality that every human being is a unique individual and that we all have a right to good health and basic needs of life and access means to a comfortable life in one way or another.

OUR MISSION

Uplifting the standards of living and creating a culture of sustainable development of communities through advocacy and practical skills of Life for a vast future.

OUR VISION

To build a resilient and self-reliant community through practical education as a basis for sustainable development.

OUR OBJECTIVES

1. To empower communities with knowledge and skills for sustainable development.
2. To promote entrepreneurship engagement of community people and allies globally.
3. To become a model training for practical skills development center.
4. To develop effective management capacity building through skills and knowledge development, information management and networking.
5. To promote dialogue and collaborate with government and other development agencies in national and community building/development.
6. To conduct evidence based research on issues affecting the communities and advocate for policy reforms.
7. To strengthen the capacity of Wilmat Development Foundation team to effectively deliver to its mandate.

OUR CORE VALUES

• Integrity.
• Teamwork.
• People participation.
• Result oriented.

OUR VALUES IN PRACTICE

WE ARE OPEN AND ACCOUNTABLE

• Promote a culture of openness and transparency, including with sponsors and donors.
• Hold self and others accountable to achieve the highest standards of integrity.
• Consistent and fair in the treatment of people.
• Open about mistakes and keen to learn from them.
• Accountable for ensuring we are a safe organization for all children, girls & young people

WE STRIVE FOR A LASTING IMPACT

• Articulate a clear purpose for staff and sets high expectations.
• Create a climate of continuous improvement, open to challenge and new ideas.
• Focus resources to drive change and maximize long-term impact, responsive to changed priorities or crises.
• Evidence-based and evaluates effectiveness.

WE WORK WELL TOGETHER

• Seek constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
• Develop trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
• Engage and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for all people in our communities.

WE ARE INCLUSIVE AND EMPOWERING

• Seek constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
• Build constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
• Develop trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
• Engage and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for everyone.

OUR FOCUS AREAS:

1. Entrepreneurship & Life practical skills training
2. Environment & Agriculture
3. Water, Sanitation & Health
4. Mentorship, Career guidance & Leadership

ACHIEVING OUR FOCUS AREAS

PROGRAMS:-

We create as well as identify existing programs in the community aligned to Wilmat Development Foundation focus areas and objectives by providing and facilitating a platform to work together to achieve our common goals. These programs further assist in measuring, monitoring and maintaining successful initiatives.

RESEARCH & ADVOCACY:-

We conduct evidence based research on both the theory and practicability of social innovations, projects and programs for sustainable development. We provide hands on concept development and co-designs with individuals, groups and organizations for quality purposes since we plan with the communities that we work with.

PARTNERSHIPS:-

We work in collaboration with other organizations to bring in better social change and Sustainable Development in communities and the world at large. We also seek for partnerships with the Private Sector, Government institutions, NGOS, CSOs and international bodies that are responsible for helping in delivering programs, bringing other partners on board, innovating and providing solutions for implementation challenges.

TRAININGS & WORKSHOPS:-

We provide training in core life-skills (e.g. leadership, mentorship, capacity building, career guidance, teamwork, and effective communication) and enterprise development (e.g. Hands on entrepreneurship-trainings, business planning, networking, and marketing) to the youth groups, community groups, schools and institutions on an agreed schedule through our network of volunteers based in the community. Training is co-delivered with our field staff and local entrepreneurs as well as financial institutions on a partnership basis. As part of their training, we empower and guide the groups to undertake a rapid market assessment and draw on this to identify a market-driven enterprise as well as tracking service availability in their communities and report their findings to decision- makers or concerned stakeholders. We also intend to organize platforms through which young people can have a voice in key local, national and international debates.

OUR PROGRAMS:

1. Skills Development Programs:

Through our “Skills Development Programs”, we look at training people on ways of how to turn their theoretical knowledge acquired from schools into practice. With the need to turn theory into practical skills, higher institutions of learning had thought wisely and introduced mandatory internship or industrial training for every student so that they can be introduced to a working environment before they get into the job market.

2. Schools Outreach Programs:

Often students from underprivileged families in rural communities lack role models who they can look up to on matters of educational and career development. Lack of awareness and proper guidance leads to making poor career choices. Wilmat Development Foundation fills this gap through its various programs tailored at exposing the students to the breadth of professional prospects in all academic disciples.

3 Climate Program:

Basing on the various visits to the informal settlements major Kampala suburbs, it is evident that people living in these informal settlements are more exposed to diseases due to water and sanitation challenges. We have initiated programs tailored towards improving and promoting the aspects of access to clean water, promoting good sanitation practices, environmental conservation and climate action tailored towards improving the lives of informal settlement dwellers so as to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 2, 6, 13 and 15.

OUR APPROACH:

We seek to bring in new ideas for solving problems facing millions around the world, delivering more impact for less resources with greater potential for sustainable scale improving youth livelihoods and encouraging social responsibility inspired by the venture of social, leadership and economic-empowerment experience. We work with the public/communities, private sectors and civil society to empower people to lead happier and more meaningful changed lives as little about the future of society is inevitable bound by our shared humanity, we believe through collective efforts, we have the power to shape the societies and communities for everyone to live in.

We use a bottom-up approach as we seek to establish a learning center that will be focussed on providing hands on skills practical education tailored towards community empowerment and development. We seek to increase people's income through providing practical skills education as a way of reducing unemployment and poverty levels in Uganda at least by 0.002% by 2030.

WHERE WE WORK:

We are currently working within the Central region (Kampala, Wakiso & Mukono), Western region (Kasese district) and Eastern region (Jinja, Budaka & Mayuge district) of Uganda with plans of expanding to the rest of the country, East Africa and later Africa and the world at large in the nearby plan in accordance to our work plan.