About CAH
Community Action for Humanity is a community based and nonprofit organization in Rwenzori Sub Region, Kasese District, Uganda. It is a vehicle for achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Our Vision
“A productive society where all people meet their needs and enjoy their rights.”
Our Mission
“To promote socioeconomic development and transformation of the people in the community through research, information sharing, consultancy and advocacy.”
Our Core Values
1. Accountability
We account to the communities we serve and all our partners we work with.
2. Care
We care for the environment, vulnerable communities, children and youths. We believe in mitigating climate change and all disasters for a healthy living. We believe in fighting gender based violence against women and girls. We believe in just education for all children and youths to enable them meet their needs and live a happy life. We believe in poverty free, disease free and hunger free communities. We believe in causing a difference in the life of people who live with mental health challenges.
3. Charity
Reaching out to elderly people, vulnerable and excluded children in communities to cause a difference in their lives is our pride.
4. Integrity
We are honest, and speak the truth to maintain our high moral integrity in the community. We believe in ethical tenacity for efficacy.
5. Love
We love seeing children and youths enjoy their rights and meet their needs. We believe in empowering communities through partnerships and just education. The success of vulnerable children and youths is our pride.
6. Justice
We believe in peace and justice for all people. We believe in gender equality, equal rights and opportunities in the community.
7. Respect
We value respect for human rights. We exemplify professionalism, serve and treat all people the way we would wish to be treated.
8. Responsibility
We are responsible for what we do and believe in causing transformation and social impact on communities that face crises.
Our Story
How We Got Started
CAH was created by the Mitti family that hails from a hard to reach area of Mbunga village in Kasese district in Rwenzori Sub Region. It started as a vehicle for encouraging students to complete school.
The family started mobilizing for small resources in 2018 from family friends and selfless elites that bore the first holiday career guidance talk at Mbunga Primary School on 28th December, 2018. This talk materialized into a more positive attitude that students had towards completing school. At this career talk, it was discovered that many youths and children face so many challenges that hinder their educational progress. Among these challenges identified were: inability of the parents to afford school, scholastic materials and perennial domestic violence that have led to early marriages, pregnancies, and enormous school dropout. The elites attributed these challenges to poor livelihoods of parents, natural disasters, (as floods, draught, landslides and soil erosion) poor infrastructures, limited motivation and endearment to the youths and children positioned in the rural communities. The challenges communities are exposed to created an opportunity for starting a Community Based Organization (CBO) that would be a formal platform for fundraising and supporting the youths and children who face such difficulties that disable them from achieving their dreams.
Forming the Organisation
In 2019, the organization started with a slogan “The Voice for Transformation” that aimed to work with different state governments and development partners to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in rural and hard to reach communities. This was with the hope of helping the youths and children meet their needs and live a happy life. This idea was profusely supported by some elites of Busongora Constituency South-Kasese district and advised to register as a formal organization. The name CAH-Community Action for Humanity was adopted and was later registered at different levels in 2020 as Community Based Organization with registration numbers CBS/KLBE 32419 and CBO 1950. (The organisation is in the process of registering with NGO Board at national level).
Why We're Needed
Statistics show that 77% of Ugandans are youths between 15 and 24 years, majority of whom are unemployed and 54% are children below 18 years who are the most vulnerable compared to the rest of the population.
Kasese district is a mountainous and water catchment area with 90% of the population that practices subsistence agriculture as their main source of livelihoods. Since early 2013, it has experienced expansive change in average weather patterns that have led to torrential floods, soil erosion, draught, landslides and unpredictable seasons that have made the population vulnerable due to unsustainable livelihoods. Cognizant of the socioeconomic conundrums in mountainous communities associated with wealth, health, education, occupation, income and natural disasters caused by climate change, the people are prone to pathetic living standards. The children and youths who depend on these vulnerable parents are also subjected to child abuse and neglect, orphan hood, malnutrition, child labour, sexual abuse, early school dropout, early marriages, teenage pregnancies, violation of women’s rights, domestic violence and poor grades of the learners in primary and secondary schools.
It is against this background that CAH-Community Action for Humanity was founded to aim at improving, transforming and empowering rural communities through mitigation of the effects of climate change, promotion of medical missions, social inclusion, education, nutrition, disease free society, youths and children skills, research, disaster risk reduction, gender equality, human rights and food systems. According to population census 2014, Kasese district has a population of about 702,029 people and majority of whom live in rural and mountainous areas that are hard to reach and live with a plethora of aforementioned challenges that CAH seeks to ameliorate. This is managed through Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, organization members, development partners and fundraisings to meet our vision.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
Organizational Goals and Objectives
Specific Goal
- Developing, transforming and improving the lives of Ugandan women, youths and children living in rural and mountainous communities.
General Goals
- A productive and supportive environment and agriculture for community members.
- Society where all children and youths happily live, complete school and meet their needs.
- A safe and disease free community that is habitable and favorable.
- Remediation of community problems through research, advocacy, partnerships, fundraising and consultancy.
- Promotion of gender equality and ending violence against women, girls and children’s rights.
- Building strong relationships and partnerships with other nonprofit making organizations and development actors.
Specific Objectives
- To mitigate effects of climate change through environmental conservation protection and vast tree planting.
- To promote completion of inclusive education and acquisition of vocational skills for self-reliance by vulnerable children and youths.
- To promote nutrition and disease free community for children, elderly, breastfeeding mothers and vulnerable people living with chronic diseases.
- To carry out research on matters affecting environment, agriculture, education and health aiming at achieving sustainable and resilient solutions to natural disasters and other problems in the community.
- To fight all forms of violence against women, girls, children and promote social inclusion through empowerment.
- To partner with organizations and development actor for development, transformation and social impact on communities.
Executive Summary of our 2021-2031 Strategic Plan
CAH is a nonprofit organization and was founded in 2019 with a prime focus on improving, developing and transforming communities. A 10 year strategic plan will run from 2021-2031 imparking on these four thematic program areas: environment and agriculture, education, community, health and nutrition.
CAH like any other organization is still faced with a number of challenges that require identifying mechanisms to address them. The Strategic plan for 10 years will be premised on the identified gaps and recommendations raised by stakeholders in the process of executing our set targets to meet our vision. Mitigating the effects of climate change, improving livelihoods among rural, poor and vulnerable populations, abuse of children’s rights, violence against women and girls, high levels of school dropout, early marriages, teenage pregnancies among rural teens, poor grades in primary and secondary learners who live in rural and mountainous areas, early childhood development, high levels of youths unemployment, girl child empowerment, promoting talents, skilling, partnerships, promoting social inclusion, promoting sustainable agriculture, increasing food systems and chain, reproductive health issues, gender equality and mental health challenges are our prime focus.
Employing staff, Institutional strengthening and development /capacity building have also been taken into consideration in this 10 years strategic plan to make a sustainable change in the lives of the people living in the rural and mountainous communities.
This strategic plan will also focus on quality service delivery, customer care management and thus effective policy making, supervision and implementation. The activities in this strategic plan will be implemented by a strong Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, volunteers, community members, qualified and experienced staff.