SOVHEN UGANDA's Page

Name of Organization, Institution, Company, or School:

Supporting Orphans & Vulnerable For Better Health, Education and Nutrition in Uganda

Focus of Study/axe de l'étude/foco de estudio

MBA

What languages do you speak?

English, French

URL?

http://www.omprakash.org/partner_profile/p/13

What did you film on 12.12.12?

SOVHEN is a youth-led organization that seeks to contribute to the development of Uganda by mobilizing young Ugandan students to undertake community development initiatives. The organization currently has SOVHEN clubs in five universities that implement various activities with support and guidance from its few headquarters staff. The young volunteers work on issues relevant to the context of the communities they serve. The volunteers are promoting livelihood and educational opportunities through banking and savings training for orphaned and vulnerable children.

Through its SEED (Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Down payment) program, SOVHEN provides banking and savings education for orphaned and vulnerable children in primary school. The children learn how to budget, plan, save, and manage their resources. SOVHEN provides wooden piggy banks and balance books to help them practice what they learn, and upon conclusion of the trainings, the organization opens individual savings accounts at a local bank for all of the students. The children continue to use the wooden piggy banks to save the limited resources they receive or earn, and at the end of each school term, the money is transferred into their individual bank accounts.

In addition, the children receive skills training and produce materials that they sell to bolster their savings accounts. They produce household items like brooms and baskets, as well as scholastic [“educational” or “school”?] materials, all of which are made from local resources. These products are sold to the local community, including local schools. The skills trainings are intended to engage the children in productive activities after school and on weekends and to teach them viable skills that they can use for personal or professional advancement in the future. Given its primary focus on education, SOVHEN ensures that the skills training remains an after-school and weekend activity.

SOVHEN also serves another critical purpose. There is currently a sense of urgency to the group’s savings efforts. Most of SOVHEN’s children are in their last two year of primary school. The organization is fully aware that a great majority of the parents or guardians are unable to afford secondary-school fees. This could have profound effects on the children, particularly the girls. Girls are at risk of early marriage in Mpigi, where the practice is widespread. The skills trainings, in addition to the group’s animal husbandry activities, which include small chicken and pig farms, are intended to help the children save collectively for a future at secondary school. The group acknowledges the unfortunate but undeniable reality that these children must save early for the next level of schooling.

With support from ONE dAY oN EARTH , SOVHEN is on course to achieve its objective of keeping them in school through FILMING THIS SEED Opportunity in Mpigi district to enable all the 300 rightholders to secure networks and partners to enable them on completion of their secondary education