Organizations established

Three organizations were registered with the Uganda Registrations and Services Bureau (URSB) as non profit NGOs (Limited with guarantee). Offices was established in Nsambya Kirombe, and a school was opened nearby. Through the process we had a very positive co-operation with KCCA (Kampala Capital City Authority) and the district authorities. In Norway the organization was registered with the Brønnøysundregistrene, as a nonprofit volunteer organization.

Greater Africa Rising Family Foundation

We had our first meeting with the local community in January, to present our organization and objectives. The turnout was great, and people were very positive about our values and ways of approaching local issues. About 1000 registered as community members within the next 5 days. After this we decided to slow down on registration until our activities are stabilized. We now have about 1500 community members.

Greater Africa Development Fund

9 activity groups are established. A Strategic Co-operation Agreement is signed with the other organizations, to secure conditions for receive donations from Norway. GAF Development has a coordinating role and responsibility in this agreement.

Greater Africa Research Center

The concepts and strategies for our other Ugandan organizations are developed. This includes the programs and projects. Over 50 business concepts are developed for our community members

Greater Africa Foreningen

A Board was Established in March and registered with the authorities in Norway. High level of competence on economic misconduct was acquired through attaining several seminars and conferences, and seeking advice from experienced professionals. These are from institutions like the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NORAD (The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation), Norges Innsamlingsråd (The Norwegian Council for Fundraising), Innsamlingskontrollen (The Norwegian Control Committee for Fundraising), Red Cross, Ernst & Young and many others.

An Ethical framework has been developed and established, including requirements for our Ugandan counterparts. For managing donations and funding in Norway in accordance with the standard for fundraising organizations, we have implemented a platform from Solidus. Our accounting practices are following this standard.

Our website has been developed and launched in June, with a donation solution integrated with secure systems for safe and transparent transactions and documentation. This makes us able to handle donations and information in a simple manner in accordance with the relevant legislations and standards.

Programs

Education

Our Education program is established by the foundation of Greater Africa Educational Center, on February 4th 2019. This institution is providing education for children from families who cannot afford school, and is an initiative of GAF Rising Family Foundation. The school is also arranging 7 practically oriented activity groups for children. Education is also provided as adult training, in the activity groups administered by GAF Development Fund. Additional knowledge for the activity groups are provided by GAF Research Center. The latter is also aiming at developing an amended curriculum for the school, to seek approval from the authorities to include more local history, traditions and heritage alternatively to some content within the standard British teaching plan.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING

We have established 9 activity groups, that GAF Development Fund are arranging for the community members. The thematic schemes for the groups are based on the identified skills and interests within the community, and relevance and potential for practical end results and outcomes for the participants. GAF Research Center is conducting overall evaluations and developing concepts for entrepreneurial endeavors. So far, there are over 50 concepts on different scale levels in the pipeline.

BASIC NEEDS

Many of our community members are in difficult life situations, and we want to provide for those who need it the most. The objective is not to dependency, but to assist people to reach a level where they can be able to attend our other programs, so that they can become self sufficient.

Some members of the community are struggling with health issues, poor housing, inadequate sanitation facilities or lack of basic needs like mattresses, clothes or shoes.

This program is under establishment, and due to lack of funds at the time being is not off ground yet. We have got some small donations from Norway, that has been successfully utilized for its purpose.

We are planning to arrange for collecting clothes and other items within Kampala. Many amongst the middle class locally are very found of charity and like contributing. Collaborating with churches can also be productive and assist us with the workload of organizing collection and distribution of donated goods for those who are in need of getting their basic needs covered.

Culture

Greater Africa has a strong belief that there is a lot of knowledge within the traditional cultures of African societies. We seek to a large extent to find local solutions for local challenges, and GAF Research Center serves as a knowledge institution in this regard.

Our founder of Greater Africa in Norway has 10 years of experience and research from the cultural sector of Uganda, and we are also working with other experienced resources in our network.

We also practice culture in various forms throughout our projects. 

DANCE 

Uganda has a (huge) and very active cultural sector, and dance is a segment with great opportunities for making a living. Weddings, corporate events and tourism initiatives frequently hires skilled dance groups. Very many performing artists of the popular local music scene are also hiring dancers for their shows and music videos. We identify talents at an early stage and provide training for youth to develop their skills.

DANCE TROUPE 

Little Lions Dance Troupe was established in January 2019. A series of auditions was arranged in the Nsambya Kirombe area, and 47 children were enrolled into the program. Training was provided on a daily basis under the... of Nsereko John from the renowned Ndere Cultural Center.

MUSIC 

About 90 percent of the music to be heard around Kampala is local music. Within our community members we have youth with musical talents. We have a connection with Tilapia Trust, and intend to propose a formal agreement to collaborate with them. In this way we might be able to provide free studio time, stage training, some management tasks and digital distribution for the upcoming artists.

Health

We are planning for a health program in the future, as many of our community are challenged with various health conditions. Diseases like sickle cell, HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, fistula and pneumonia are some of the diagnoses they are struggling with, and we would like to assist with this in any way we can. Also here, we would like to draw from traditional knowledge in addition to modern medicine, to make use of the practices and techniques that has a proven positive effect.

Environment

All of our environmental endeavors are branded under our MyGreenPlanet(c) program.

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Especially within our agricultural projects we have several perspectives on how to effectively minimize our footprint, and to lay out environmentally efficient practices for others to follow.

Agriculture was in invented in Uganda, as the Bachwezi people were the first to practice both planting and harvesting the land and hold cows by the source of the Nile. We cherish these origins, and thrive on learning and implementing the traditional knowledge that lies within the local population, that has managed to provide for millions of people for tens of thousands of years.

Using nature’s own principles like combining projects in ecosystems is both environmentally sound and economically sustainable. Examples of this is using manure and urine from animal holding for fertilizing the soil for growing food and medicinal plants.

TRANSPORT SHARING

Several of our community-members has small businesses, and have to travel to purchase goods for their stocks. To make their businesses grow and reduce costs, they would be dependent on transport for reaching cheaper wholesale markets. Instead of each business having to provide for their own transport, we would like to attain a car that can provide for all of our community-members needs. In this way we save them costs while in a venerable part of their process, as well as saving the environment of unnecessary pollution. Sharing is caring they say, and building a culture for sharing resources within a community is one of the ways we contribute. We hope that this is a concept that can inspire others to implement the same practice, so that it can become a model for reducing traffic.

Projects

Greater Africa Educational Center

Built a school in 9 days Opened on February 4th for 163 students, on the office date for school start in Uganda. 234 students Nursery level to 5th grade Engaged 12 teachers Built... school benches Dealing with flood ⁃ the second semester was supposed to start on May 27th, but due to heavy flooding there was huge damages and not possible to open the school. All school books were damaged, the food storage, doors, school benches and office equipment. A private fundraiser was established in Norway with low results.

Training Center for Agriculture

We have established a training center, a garden along Salaams road not far from where the core of our community-members are based. Here, we will have training in growing and harvesting food plants and medicinal herbs. We are also planning to start with chicken farming at the center. In relation with this we have also acquired cooperation with pig farm nearby, were we can train holding of pigs. A cooperation with a coffee farm is also in motion, with huge areas we can use for producing coffee.