The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Students learn important job skills of how to sew, tailor, knit and create their own clothing designs and fashion that can be sold to support their future. 

Screen printing is a valuable skill that enables students to express their artistic designs, explore branding opportunities and complete orders for local schools and organizations to generate income.

Hair braiding in Uganda is an in demand skill in Uganda with high demand for weaves and extensions. Skilled Hair braiders can create a profitable business with low start up costs. 

Yawe not only provides banking and finance training, they also help stimulate economic development by providing micro loans to community members which can be used to buy solar systems, start a business or help with personal financial situations. 

YAWE bakery produces a variety of baked goods, breads and cakes to the region. Sales help support vocational training and provides baking and business skills to the students.

YAWE craftsmen learn valuable welding skills and techniques which can be applied to the production of many products from security gates to tables. 

Every year YAWE continues to increase access to formal education for orphans and vulnerable children especially those affected or infected by HIV and children with disabilities.  YAWE currently supports school fees and basic health care for 44 students. Further donations are needed to expand educational support to more students  because the need exceeds current donations. 

YAWE conducts routine community outreach activities in rural areas where community members have difficulty accessing health services in the districts of Kabarole and Fort Portal city. YAWE targets sexual reproductive health preventative, diagnostic and curative care services. Services include health education and counseling, immunization, HIV testing services, family planning, STI screening, cervical cancer screening, glucose testing, blood pressure monitoring, and free medical consultation. YAWE provides immunization outreach in the hard-to-reach area of Nyakitojo and other villages helping to meet Uganda’s goal of providing safe and effective vaccines to every child in the Reach Every Child/ Reach Every District strategy which aims to immunize every child that has never received any antigens/ vaccines. 

Food insecurity is one of the leading health and nutrition issues facing young positive adolescent mothers and their children, people with disabilities, and other marginalized people in the community. In 2022, YAWE provided relief food supplies to over 200 households as a Christmas gift. The package included rice, posho, cooking oil, sugar, bar soap and salt. The food distribution was done hand in hand with raising awareness on how to use the available resources at the house hold level to improve nutrition with emphasis and education on growing greens and vegetables.

Gloria’s future was uncertain until YAWE was able to support her education and help her attend school. Gloria is a disabled child that is unable to stand or walk, but dreams of becoming a teacher. With the educational support she is receiving from YAWE she is happy and a wonderful success story of how education and support can improve a life and provide a path for a bright productive future. She is a twin sister and lives with her single mother. Her mother is a casual laborer who digs for other people to earn a living. Unfortunately, Gloria’s father died recently in 2022 so she relies on YAWE’s support to have the resources to attend school and pursue her education and dreams. 

Improving household income to a self-sustaining level is a goal of YAWE’s. The goat for life project is a successful method of improving social economic status by giving out goats to 129 households by December 2022. Nanadwula, a recipient of a goat, said the project has helped her care for her disabled granddaughter.  From the goat she received she was able to sell the produced kids and build rentals from which she now earns monthly rent income.

Every year YAWE Foundation and Kabarole Unique Stars (KUSA) organize a conference held at YAWE in Rwengoma, that brings together hundreds of youths living with HIV for 5 days. Activities at the conference include candlelight ceremony, full day sessions about stigma and discrimination, disclosure, healthy relationships, adherence, and World AIDS day commemoration with speeches from key stakeholders and politicians. Since their inception, YAWE has been involved in activities to promote the revolutionary idea of organizing the youth, women, and other vulnerable people under one forum to promote HIV/AIDs awareness campaign and encouraging activities of self-reliance through entrepreneurship and business management. YAWE Foundation unites young people living with HIV under their umbrella organization known as Kabarole Unique Stars Association (KUSA). This provides a platform for people living with HIV/AIDs to address their psychosocial challenges to improve their quality of life and contribute to the reduction of new HIV infection and HIV related deaths.