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About us
Uganda is home to fertile soils, ample rainfall and a number of vital natural resources which have helped the country’s economy remain relatively stable; yet a fifth of all Ugandans still lack access to clean water and live below the poverty line.
Approximately 72% of Uganda’s inhabitants are involved in agricultural activities as the country is home to fertile soils, ample rainfall and a number of vital natural resources which have helped Uganda’s economy remain relatively stable. Despite this, 21% of Ugandans still lack access to clean water and 20% live below the poverty line.
Uganda is a nation with a population of approximately 38 million located in Eastern Africa and bordered by South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uganda gained independence from Britain in 1962, and was known for extreme instability through much of the 1980s and 1990s – especially under the oppressive dictator Idi Amin. Now, Uganda is much more stable and has gained strength economically, although increasing oppression of homosexuals and the long reign of Museveni and his “no-party system” are the cause of some international concern.
Our Work in Uganda
In Africa, The Hunger Project works to build sustainable community-based programs using the Epicenter Strategy. An epicenter is a dynamic center of community mobilization and action, as well as an actual facility built by community members. Through the Epicenter Strategy 15,000-25,000 people are brought together as a cluster of rural villages — giving villages more clout with local government than a single village is likely to have and increasing a community’s ability to collective utilize resources. The epicenter building serves as a focal point where the motivation, energies and leadership of the people converge with the resources of local government and non-governmental organizations. Over an eight-year period, an epicenter addresses hunger and poverty and moves along a path toward sustainable self-reliance, at which point it is able to fund its own activities and no longer requires financial investment from The Hunger Project.
The Hunger Project has been working in Uganda since 1999 and is currently empowering community partners in 11 epicenter areas to end their own hunger and poverty. Through its integrated approach to rural development, the Epicenter Strategy, The Hunger Project is working with community partners to successfully access the basic services needed to lead lives of self-reliance and achieve internationally agreed-upon markers of success, such as the Millennium Development Goals.
Our Vision
A world where every woman, man and child leads a healthy, fulfilling life of self-reliance and dignity.
Our Mission
To end hunger and poverty by pioneering sustainable, grassroots, women-centered strategies and advocating for their widespread adoption in countries throughout the world. Read about our approach.
Our Principles
Through our work to end hunger, we have recognized these ten principles as being fundamental to The Hunger Project. We challenge ourselves to ensure that each of our strategies builds on these principles.
1. Human Dignity.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, including the right to food, health, work and education. The inherent nature of every person is creative, resourceful, self-reliant, responsible and productive. We must not treat people living in conditions of hunger as beneficiaries, which can crush dignity, but rather as the key resource for ending hunger.
2. Gender Equality.
An essential part of ending hunger must be to cause society-wide change towards gender equality. Women bear the major responsibility for meeting basic needs, yet are systematically denied the resources, freedom of action and voice in decision-making to fulfill that responsibility.
3. Empowerment.
In the face of social suppression, focused and sustained action is required to awaken people to the possibility of self-reliance, to build confidence, and to organize communities to take charge of their own development.
4. Leverage.
Ending chronic hunger requires action that catalyzes large-scale systemic change. We must regularly step back — assess our impact within the evolving social/political/economic environment — and launch the highest leverage actions we can to meet this challenge.
5. Interconnectedness.
Our actions are shaped by, and affect, all other people and our natural environment. Hunger and poverty are not problems of one country or another but are global issues. We must solve them not as “donors and recipients” but as global citizens, working as coequal partners in a common front to end hunger.
6. Sustainability.
Solutions to ending hunger must be sustainable locally, socially, economically and environmentally.
7. Social Transformation.
People’s self-reliance is suppressed by conditions such as corruption, armed conflict, racism and the subjugation of women. These are all rooted in an age-old and nearly universal patriarchal mindset that must be transformed as part of a fundamental shift in the way society is organized.
8. Holistic Approach.
Hunger is inextricably linked to a nexus of issues including decent work, health, education, environmental sustainability and social justice. Only in solving these together will any of them be solved on a sustainable basis.
9. Decentralization.
Individual and community ownership of local development is critical. Actions are most successful if decisions are made close to the people. This requires effective national and local government working in partnership with the people.
10. Transformative Leadership.
Ending hunger requires a new kind of leadership: not top-down, authority-based leadership, but leadership that awakens people to their own power — leadership “with” people rather than leadership “over” people.
In sum, world hunger can be ended, but not by merely doing more of the same. Hunger is primarily a human issue, and ending hunger requires principles that are consistent with our shared humanity.