Organisation profile 2018

 

A. ORGANIZATION DETAILS

 

1.Name: Voluntary Organisation for Innovative Community-led Empowerment

 

2. Registered acronym: VOICE

 

3. Address: Plot 9A

 

                     Andrea Olal Road

 

                     Gulu Municipality

 

                     P.O. Box 586

 

                     Gulu

 

                     Uganda

 

                     Tel: +256-772362038

 

                     Email: voice4communityinfo@gmail.com

 

4. Contact Person:

 

                     Okumu Sam Ocula

 

                      Program Director,

 

                      Email: oculasam@gmail.com

 

5. Legal status: Registered with Uganda government as nonprofit community-based organization

 

6. Date organisation was formed: 18th/May/2012

 

7. Date of government registration: 31^st / July/ 2015

 

8. Bank details:

 

                       Bank: Centenary Rural Development Bank LTD

 

                       Branch: Gulu Branch

                       Bank address:

                       Plot 1, Bank Lane

                       P.O. Box 957

                       Gulu,

                     

 

                      Account Name: Voluntary Organisation for Innovative Community-led Empowerment

 

                      Registered acronym: VOICE

 

                      Account number: 3100040538

 

                      Swift code: CERBUGKA

 

   

 

ORGANISATION BACKGROUND

 

VOICE was formed in 2012 as an informal group by 7 residents to oppose violence and discrimination against war-affected women-headed households living in the slum of Kanyagoga Parish, Gulu Municipality. Since then, VOICE has grown in membership from local communities to 12 active groups comprising at least 30 members each, across all the 4 Divisions of Gulu Municipality. The organization legally registered with Uganda government in 2015. It constituted an elected 7-member Board of Directors comprising 4 women and 3 men. Each of the 12 working groups formulated their own bye-laws and elected separate 5-member Executive Committees to coordinate and manage their own affairs. The groups are responsible for identifying members interested in participating in VOICE activities. There is free entry and exit of members. 80% of members comprise of widows who lost their spouses to wars in the region, child-mothers who fell victim to sex abuse, neglected adolescent girls at high risk of survival or infected with HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis B virus, and women-headed refugee families from South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo.  The remaining membership comprise disabled persons, elderly persons who lost their children to the wars, neglected boy s at high risk of survival, and extremely poor families with limited options for livelihoods.

 

VOICE works with a diverse group of communities who fell victim to calamities in the region. Over two decades of war in northern Uganda from 1986, killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced over 2 million others and destroyed all sources of rural and urban livelihoods for communities in the region. Thousands of women, young girls and boys were raped or sodomised and forcefully conscripted to combat by soldiers and rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army. These resulted to many deaths, disappearance, disability from torture, bullet injuries and landmines.  Girl victims were forced into pregnancies and survivors now face social discrimination on account of their sex and combat history yet they have to look after their children born in captivity because most of their spouses died. Victims of captivity were exposed to infection with HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B virus and other sexually transmitted infections and even now, survive on commercial sex, drug addiction, hire killings, theft or alcoholism because they are extremely poor families, lack capital and entrepreneurship skills, or employable skills because their education was disrupted by war, so they largely remain illiterate.

 

Meanwhile forced migrants of mainly women-headed families, were gushed into northern Uganda by war in South Sudan. Uganda hosts over 1.4 million refugees in camp settlements and a sizable number live in urban areas. Those in gazzetted refugee camps receive aid from local and international aid agencies, while those in urban areas scarcely receive aid. They lack food, clean drinking water, shelter and access to education for their children. South Sudanese are Arabic-speaking yet Ugandan schools teach children in English language thus inhibiting child access to education. Besides, extreme poverty prevents South Sudanese children to access Ugandan education because they cannot afford school fees for their children. Migrants have large family sizes and women-headed because their male counterparts either died in the war, are engaged in combat or forcefully separated from their families. Most of their children remain un-immunized against killer diseases leading to high mortality rate. They also face social discrimination due to their nationality, low economic status, language barriers and prejudice on account of witchcraft. However, many of them operate small scale businesses though with limited skills.

 

Migrants from DR Congo have a different story. The women trekked on foot for over 2000 km searching for their spouses who were Ugandan soldiers on foreign military mission to their country in 2002. They were “gifted” to Ugandan soldiers by their parents and served as concubines, but had children with the soldiers. When Ugandan soldiers withdrew under a UN accord, the soldiers were airlifted to northern Uganda while their spouses were left behind. With children on their backs, the women walked for over 2000 km, up to northern Uganda where their spouses were airlifted to. Unfortunately, many of the soldiers died in combat, got another deployment to Somalia, South Sudan and Central African Republic or abandoned their Congolese spouses together with their children on account of their perceived illegitimate marital affairs. With limited option for survival livelihoods, the women resorted to commercial sex, small scale businesses, witchcraft, drug and alcoholism. Local communities discriminate against them on account of their sex history which is associated with transmission of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B and other sexually transmitted diseases. They face language barrier because they are a Lingala and French-speaking nationality. They face extreme poverty because they live on their own, caring for many children their spouses left them with.  

 

 

Vision: To achieve a fair, just and sustainable world for everyone.

 

Mission: To sow lasting happiness in the faces of vulnerable communities

 

Values: Tolerance, equality, transparency and sustainable living.

 

 

 

. GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE OF THE ORGANISATION

 

VOICE is largely managed by its own members except for professional management staff or hired external consultants.

 

Members

 

Membership is open to anyone on voluntary basis. Members elect a Board of 7, comprising at least 60% women.  Decision-making centers on all members. VOICE members participate to work for themselves on voluntary basis during any activity that benefit them directly or local communities in which they live.

 

Board

 

VOICE has an elected Board, responsible for making policy and monitoring performance of the management staff. Elections are made after every 3 years. The Board fundraise resources and promote external relation with other partners. The Board reports to the General Assembly of members.

 

Management staff

 

VOICE has 6 staff who work across projects. Many staff who get employed by VOICE also keep leaving the organization because the organisation lacks sustainable funds to maintain their welfare. Many donor-funded projects exclude budgets for staff salary, which limits the number of management staff headed by the Program Director. The Finance and Administration Officer is responsible for financial records, audit and controls, and also heads the Human Resource section including the large number of volunteers and intermittent interns. There are Project Officers for; Community Mobilisation (1), Building Construction (1), Environmental Protection (1) and Peace-building and Gender (1). VOICE plans to widen management departments for; Gender Equality and Child Protection, Innovation and Inventory, Procurement and Risks Management Specialist, an Askari and an Office Attendant. However availability of funds still holds back these plans. and Innovation. VOICE hire Consultants working for specific assignments on regular basis depending on project needs. For example; Trainers on making energy-efficient cook stove and biogas energy to transform energy consumption from fossiled wood fuel to environmentally sustainable sources of energy. VOICE also regularly hire professional health experts to conduct training for beneficiaries. It also hire external auditors to conduct independent financial audit of its accounts. Management staff report to the Board and members.

 

Beneficiary Groups

 

VOICE has 360 beneficiaries  organised in 12 groups of 30 members each. Each group elects a 5-member Executive Committee, to coordinate member activities in each slum. The Executive Committee report to group members and Management staff. They are change agents who mobilise and transform communities to participate in achieving the mission and vision of the organisation. VOICE groups keep growing but lack of resources limit their expansion. The groups are  apex of mindset change among their communities, peace-builders, and socio-economic empowerment agents. Groups are entry points for VOICE to mobilise and work with communities in each slum and rural villages across northern Uganda.

 

Local authorities

 

VOICE works in close collaboration with Local Council offices, Gulu City Council Division offices, District Sub County offices and District Local Council offices. VOICE always involve local authorities in all its activities so that they offer necessary support to the activity under implementation.