Amigos Annual Review 2014

We support Ugandans to work their way out of poverty with dignity. Our approach to ending poverty is

unique: a powerful mix of education, vocational training, practical farming and emotional support is changing the future for thousands of Ugandan families. Our vision is for a confident and thriving rural Uganda where no one goes to bed hungry. Our mission is to give families the hope and the means to live off their own land and set up small businesses to revolutionise their futures.

3 Creating Lasting Change Together4 How We Work5 Our Achievements7 Kira Farm Development Centre11 Kira into Rural Uganda15 Child Sponsorship19 Expeditions21 Future Plans22 Thanks to You23 Financial Summary

Our Mission Contents

We are excited to share with you our 2014 Annual Review which details our progress, looks at our future plans, and tells the stories of some of the hard-working marginalised

people who inspire us every day.

2014 was a year of growth for Amigos and we were delighted to plough 25% more funds into projects in Uganda, expanding existing initiatives and working alongside increasing numbers of people eager to lift themselves out of poverty.

Over the last year we have contributed towards changing the lives of over 9,600 people through education, vocational training, conservation farming, microfinance and clean water projects. A significant development in 2014 was the expansion of our conservation farming groups to nearly twice as many as the year before – helping double the crop yields of 196 subsistence farmers and improve the lives of 2352 dependants.

In this report you will find many remarkable stories, including one from Kemis, a Ugandan farmer whose family is thriving. ‘Since I joined the Amigos farming group my harvest is twice the size it used to be. Today my family never go hungry and I can pay school fees for my children.’

Creating Lasting Change Together

We remain laser-focused on our goal of reaching over 10,000 poor and marginalised people every year and to this end we are increasing our community training groups to bring about change faster and more effectively, as well as putting our energies into constructing boreholes.

The success of Amigos would not be possible without our incredibly committed supporters and our hugely valued corporate partnerships. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support in transforming precious lives.

Phil Pugsley CEO

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Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Kenya, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. Uganda gained independence from Britain in 1962 and the period since then has been marked by intermittent conflicts, most recently a lengthy civil

war against the Lord’s Resistance Army which raged for almost three decades, resulting in the displacement of four million lives and the abduction of 30,000-40,000 children who were used by the rebels as soldiers or commander’s wives. This destroyed economic activity and hindered development in the north of Uganda.

Nearly half of the population is less than 15 years old and there are 2.5 million orphans nationally. This broken, parent-less, generation faces few economic opportunities in rural areas, 83% of 15-24 year olds are unemployed and only 25% get the opportunity to complete secondary school. Ninety per cent of the population live in rural areas and survive on subsistence farming and informal labour. Gender inequality is the main hindrance to reducing women’s poverty as they have limited power to act independently, participate in community life and become educated.

Established in 2000, Amigos is a development NGO based in the South West, which believes in helping people to help themselves. In Uganda we stand alongside the most vulnerable, many of whom have been affected by war, HIV and poverty. Through education, vocational training and emotional support we equip them to bring about lasting change in their lives. It’s a powerful package that works. With our support, they are starting to feed their families, send their children to school, earn a steady income and lead happy and fulfilled lives.

• Everyonecanbehelped – whatever age, gender, tribe, faith or history.

• Povertyisn’tjustmaterial – many believe the future is hopeless. We aim to restore hope.

• Skillsmustbepassedon – everyone Amigos invests in is expected to invest in others by passing on the skills they have learnt to build new lives free from poverty and hunger.

• Exitstrategiesareessential – we won’t be around forever. We work with groups and individuals for specific periods of time, so they are motivated to acquire the skills necessary to become independent.

• Listen,listen,listen – we never think we know it all. We are proud that our team in Uganda is made up entirely of Ugandans. We are directed by the people we seek to help.

Where Amigos works

How we work The rules we work by

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Our Achievements This Year

7,457

39 100% 69% 120

2,352 342 540

7457 people in rural communities were able to access safe water thanks

to the construction of 14 rainwater harvesting jars, 10 water filters, 2

shallow wells and 1 borehole.

39 disadvantaged young people spent one year at Kira Farm

Development Centre, receiving training in conservation farming,

acquiring vocational skills and benefitting from discipleship.

Through our conservation farming groups we have helped more

than double the crop yields of 196 subsistence farmers, thus improving

the lives of 2352 dependants.

We achieved a 100% success rate at Kira Farm – every Kira trainee from 2013 has

gone on to set up a small business or gained employment, bringing essential

income into their households.

45 child sponsorship caregivers created their own savings groups and received microfinance from Amigos.

This improved the lives of 540 people, with each household increasing their

income by an average of 35%.

Over 120 guests stayed/volunteered at Kira Farm from all over the world,

contributing to over half of the centre’s running costs.

342 children have been sponsored to go to primary

or secondary school.

69% of Kira graduates implemented the conservation farming skills they acquired at Kira Farm and have more than doubled

their crop yields. This means many households are now able to enjoy two

meals a day, instead of one.

Beekeeping was introduced to the Kira Farm syllabus

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At Kira Farm Development Centre (KFDC) in Wakiso district, Uganda, 40 disadvantaged young people aged between 17-25 years learn practical skills and appropriate technologies which are relevant in their communities on

their return. From conservation farming methods to vocational skills in construction, tailoring, carpentry and hairdressing, the trainees are equipped with the knowledge to create work for themselves and become contributors to society. This one year programme is supplemented with business and entrepreneurship training, and a microfinance scheme to provide the young people with the capital, or tools, to set up a sustainable business of their own. This enables each trainee to return to their community prepared with the knowledge, confidence and funds to create work for themselves, rather than relying on prospective employers as is the case with the majority of young people in Uganda today.

Many of our students come from northern Uganda and were affected by the war with the Lord’s Resistance Army, either abducted and used as child soldiers or orphaned by the violence. We strongly believe in holistic, social transformation and encourage a change from within through the delivery of our Life Skills syllabus and Biblical discipleship. We also teach restorative justice, encouraging participants to take a different view of conflict, with the intention that some students may become community mediators. Our vision is to inspire and develop these young adults so that they become self-sufficient and financially independent.

Kira FarmDevelopment Centre

“I used to drink, sell drugs and I spent time in prison when I was 15. Then I went to Kira Farm and learnt construction and conservation farming. I recently won a contract to build a large house and made 1 million profit (£250) in 3 months, I used to make 20,000 USh (£5) in the same period of

time doing petty jobs. If I hadn’t been to Kira I’d be in prison, tired of life or maybe dead. Today I’m able to pay my sister’s school fees.”

Justin

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Kira Farm opened in 2009 and since then we have been making changes on an annual basis to improve the effectiveness of the project. We are excited to say that we now have a 100% success rate – this means that every Kira graduate

from 2013 has gone on to set up a successful small business or gained employment, bringing essential income into their households. A large proportion (69%) of those who live in rural areas have also implemented the conservation farming skills they acquired at Kira Farm and more than doubled their crop yields. This means that many households are now able to enjoy two meals a day, instead of one.

In 2014, 39 vulnerable and marginalised young people acquired life-changing skills at Kira Farm. All graduates had the opportunity to receive sewing machines or tools, and / or microfinance loans from Amigos to set up small enterprises. We expect each trainee to directly affect at least 12 people back in their communities upon graduation – meaning the lives of 468 people will be improved. Many go on to train whole communities in conservation farming through our KiRU programme.

In 2014 over 120 guests stayed/volunteered at Kira Farm from different parts of the world, contributing to over half of the centre’s running costs. In the future we plan to develop educational income-generating projects to make Kira Farm increasingly self-supporting.

During this time we have also added a bee-keeping element to the programme, introducing six hives and educating trainees in the business of bee-keeping.

The Impact of Kira Farm Development Centre

“I used to sell my body for the price of a beer, but by the time I left Kira Farm I knew I was special. I was no longer part of a street kids group, but a world

changers group. I now have a job making school uniforms thanks to the tailoring skills I learnt at Kira and I’m going to use the money I’ve saved to open a hairdressing salon. Thank you Amigos for turning me into a person of value.”

KiraGraduate2014

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Overwhelmed with Joy

“The following morning, with swollen feet, I started to look for work. I came across a rich home with many goats outside but they didn’t have the right shelter. I introduced myself to the owner and explained that I had been trained in goat keeping at a vocational project. By the end of our discussions I had secured my first job - constructing a goat house. The owner agreed to pay me USh 100,000 (£25) and I started the next day. I was overwhelmed with joy and a sense of freedom that I had never experienced in life before. I kept telling myself: This is it! I’m starting life all over again! Just imagine walking for six hours without a single coin and ending up with a job worth USh 100,000 the next morning, what can be better than that?

“Since then I have secured a number of construction jobs thanks to the training I received at Kira, earning around USh 150,000 (£37) a month. After a few weeks I had enough money to rent a two-room house of my own for USh 30,000 (£7) a month. I use one room for sleeping and the other room for keeping chickens. I have also rented an acre of land where I’ve been growing maize and sweet potatoes. People told me the soil was bad and nothing would grow there, but I’ve surprised them by putting into practice the conservation farming methods I learnt at Kira and using organic manure that has enabled me to produce healthy eggplants for a profit of USh 80,000 (£20), with this income I have been able to buy two piglets.

A Bright Future

“Through my other earnings I have been able to buy another milking goat and I have lined up a nursery school willing to buy my milk. By the end of the year I plan to sell some goats and pigs to buy a plot of land for two million Ugandan shillings (£500). I am driven by a determination not to end up like my father and grandfather. I have joined a local church and I’m a member of the worship team and I’ve also started to train the young people in my church in construction. Through the teaching in conflict resolution I received at Kira I have been able to get back on good terms with my aunty, despite the terrible way she treated me and my siblings. I have taught her about conservation farming and built an energy saving cooking stove for her kitchen.

“I have had the most amazing six months of my life since I completed the course at Kira. I love wakingup every morning because there are so many opportunities to make it in life. Thanks so much Amigos!”

As a small child Ivan was abandoned by his parents and ended up living with his aunty. At the age of 10 the little boy started working at an international flower plant earning USh 80,000 (£20) a month. His aunty took everything he earned, and then threw him out when he fell sick from the dangerous chemicals and was unable to work. Ivan had no choice but to live on the streets of Kampala.

“Every day I spent on the street I lost hope of ever making it in life. When I joined Kira I treasured every minute - it was a place where I started dreaming again, not about my grandfather who died homeless, or my father who lives rough, but how my life could be different from now on.

“I had high hopes of making it in life, but after five years on the streets I had nowhere to go after my time at Kira came to an end. Then I remembered a friend who used to give me food and thought I’d see if I could stay at his place. I didn’t have enough for the bus fare because I spent nearly all my savings on a goat, so the bus took me halfway and then I walked six hours to get to my friend’s house. That long walk felt like five minutes because I was so excited about starting my new life.

“I walked for six hours without a single coin, the following day

I’d secured a job worth USh 100,000 (£25). It doesn’t

get better than that!”

IvanKabuye,18

Third Generation Homeless

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Mary Kwagala, 25, had a tough start to life – she never knew her father, she was abandoned by her mother and was emotionally and physically abused by her grandmother. In desperation she moved in with her boyfriend at 17, but when she fell pregnant he threw her out. Eventually Mary and her daughter, Patience, were taken in by a Christian family who encouraged her to apply for a place at Kira Farm.

“At Kira I realised that I could be the solution to my own problems, I didn’t need to rely on anyone else. I learnt that God loves me and with my new skills I could take care of all my needs,” smiles Mary.

Renewed Confidence

“The year at Kira restored my self-esteem and when I returned home I had the confidence to ask for a job in an electrical appliances job. They took me on

“My earnings have turned my life around”

because they knew I’d received training in business skills at Kira Farm. Before long I started thinking about how I could increase my basic salary and boldly asked my boss if I could sell food in front of the shop. He agreed and I used my first monthly salary of USh 40,000 (£10) as start-up capital for my fast food business. By putting into practice the catering skills I’d learnt at Kira my business picked up quickly and I’m now making a profit of at least USh 30,000 (£7) every day.

“My earnings have turned my life around. Today I can afford to send my daughter to school and I have managed to rent an acre of land for conservation farming. I plan to set up a tailoring business and I have already bought a sewing machine. I’m a member of two savings group and I’m managing to save USh 4000 (£1) every day.

Reduced Sickness

“I have built a tippy tap at my daughter’s school and now she’s hardly ever sick as she can wash her hands. There are 150 children at the school and the administrators always greet me with a big smile because they used to spend USh 200,000 (£50) a term treating diarrohea, but last term they only spent USh 48,000 (£12).

“Today I feel confident sharing from the Bible thanks to the discipleship classes we had at Kira and I am the chief usher at church. A number of girls, in desperate situations, have sought advice from me. I’m only at the start of my journey, but still I’m providing hope to them.

“I used to hate my boyfriend for leaving me pregnant and alone, but at Kira we learnt about restorative justice and how we should never judge people. I don’t know why my boyfriend did what he did, but this approach has enabled me to reach out to his family. I’m happy Patience will have a relationship with her paternal family, even if she has never met her father.

“I thank Amigos for helping me to own my life. I am a proud mother because I can provide three meals a day for my child - in the past we had days when we didn’t eat anything. I can afford to dress myself and my daughter and buy all the essentials we need. I am really happy!”

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Kira into Rural Uganda (KiRU) is an effective programme that seeks to maximise impact in rural areas in a cost-efficient way. Through listening to the needs of a community, being smart about where we place our energies

and strategic in our approach, we can achieve our ultimate goal – to invest in the training and skilling of a group of people of all ages so they are able to live sustainably through the work of their own hands.

KiRUworksinthreemainareas:

• Conservationfarming – we supply small scale farmers with the training they need to grow their way out of hunger and poverty. Instead of giving handouts, we invest in farmers to generate a permanent gain in farm income. Using environmentally-friendly farming techniques they can increase their crop yields by up to four times. This training is supported with simple technologies and tools which help farmers harvest, store and process their crops.

• Water – constructing wells, introducing technologies such as rainwater harvesting tanks, tippy taps, bio-sand water filters; and providing training in health and hygiene.

• Microfinance – providing soft loans to people in poverty. We believe microfinance is a sustainable means of poverty alleviation leading to lasting, holistic development. Capital and tools empower entrepreneurs to build businesses, support their families and transform their communities.

“Amigos extension workers are so passionate, they build on the resources we have, not like other organisations which make it seem like we know and have nothing. They work in our communities, not teaching us from hotels, and they work practically in the fields beside us getting their hands dirty and teaching us how it is done. They believe in us and they respect us.”

WalterOlayna,Gulu.

Kira into Rural Uganda

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Amigos is passionately committed to rural development and in 2014 we invested our energies in this area after recognising that communities can be changed more effectively when trained in groups. In 2013 we

trained over 100 people in conservation farming techniques; in 2014 we increased this figure to 245 people. Five out of seven groups were successful (two were affected by Striga weed and this is being addressed), which meant that 196 people saw their crop yields double and 2352 dependents benefitted indirectly. This is a significant impact for subsistence farmers who often struggle to grow enough to feed their families and pay school fees for their children. We’re pleased this has proven to be a particularly cost-effective and successful project.

Additionally, 7457 people in rural communities were able to access safe water as a result of Amigos’ KiRU programmes in 2014. With support from Wilmslow Wells for Africa, Amigos constructed 6 rainwater harvesting jars and 10 water filters in 5 schools in Kitgum, benefitting 2705 children and their teachers. One borehole was constructed in Orom, thanks to a generous UK supporter, reaching at least 2000 people from villages surrounding Gili-Gili Primary School. Two shallow wells were also donated in Wakiso, reaching 2512 people. Finally, 8 rainwater harvesting jars were constructed under the Child Sponsorship project reaching a total of 240 people.

In Uganda children can spend a whole day at school without a drink. The consequences are serious as dehydration affects brainpower – a loss of 2% of body fluids causes a 20% reduction in children’s physical and mental performance.

The Impact of KiRU

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Gilli Gilli in Orom, northern Uganda, is out of reach of most NGOs and out of sight of the government. A short distance from the Sudanese border this semi-arid region is largely

forgotten, however the people who live here are keen to learn, develop and adopt new ideas.

Thanks to a generous supporter we were able to install a borehole next to the primary school in Gilli Gilli, which now provides clean water for at least 2000 people in surrounding villages. Prior to this there was simply a remote, dirty, water source which people had to share with animals, resulting in many contracting diseases such as typhoid. Today, thanks to the borehole, people in Orom are healthy, they can wash, cook, clean their homes and have enough to drink. Death from water-borne diseases is a thing of the past.

We have recently set up nine conservation farming groups in the area, enabling farmers to increase their crop yields up to four-fold. We’re excited for this community as they embark on a journey of transforming their lives through the work of their own hands.

The Forgotten People

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Kemis Okura is a farmer from Masindi who joined a conservation farming group supported by Amigos. ‘Before I was part of this group I used to harvest 5 sacks of beans per season, per acre,

but after joining this group I doubled my harvest to 10 sacks. This has never happened before,’ says Kemis.

‘I used to sell produce cheaply to middle men who came and exploited us. I would end up making around USh 500,000 (£125) - to USh 600,000 (£150) per season’. After the group received training in marketing and post-harvest crop handling they decided to add value to their produce rather than selling to middle men who used to take most of the profit. As a result Kemis made over USh 1,500,000 (£375) last season.

Kemis’s family are happy as they never go hungry and are able to enjoy three meals in a day, and his children can go to school as paying school fees is no longer a problem. Kemis said that he and his wife used to fight a lot, but since they received training in conflict resolution from Amigos they go for long periods without quarrelling. He now calls his wife his ‘sweetheart’ and involves her in making family decisions, this is a huge leap forward culturally.

Using some existing savings, and the profit he made from his impressive harvest, Kemis bought a car and now works as a taxi driver when he’s finished farming for the day. This brings in an extra USh 180,000 (£45) a week into the family home.

Kemis believes that in a few years’ time his household will be able to afford everything they need, thanks to his new skills in conservation farming.

‘This is just the beginning for me,’ says Kemis. ‘I am going to chase poverty out of my home. Long live Amigos!’

A Farmer and His ‘Sweetheart’

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Education is key to escaping poverty, yet only 1 in 4 young people in Uganda are fortunate enough to complete their secondary education. With one of the youngest populations in the world there are millions of children trapped outside the school gates destined for a life of hunger and deprivation.

Through our Child Sponsorship programme we seek out the most vulnerable of these children, many of whom are orphaned and have been affected by war and HIV. We don’t take them away and put them in an orphanage, instead we support them to gain access to education while they live with their extended families. Here’s why we believe in education for all:

Education: Schooling provides children the opportunity to escape poverty and improve their quality of life.

SavingChildhoods: Sponsorship keeps girls safe from child marriage and premature pregnancies.

FoodSecurity: Nutritious food is a vital building block for children’s growth and development. The growing brain of a five-year-old requires 44% of their total energy consumption - poor diets steal this energy away and this is why sponsored children receive a school dinner every day.

Knowledge: Sponsorship brings knowledge into a deprived household, even for something as simple, and life-changing, as being able to read the back of a medicine bottle.

Healthcare: Every year thousands of children in Uganda die before their fifth birthday. Sponsorship can help children gain access to essential healthcare treatment.

CareforHIVandAIDS: Amigos is currently providing support to children affected by HIV and AIDS through counselling and access to testing.

CleanWater: Dirty water is one of the biggest killers of children under five. Through the Child Sponsorship Programme we help communities gain access to clean, safe water and good sanitation.

ChildProtection: Sponsorship helps families to protect their children from sexual and/or commercial exploitation.

Future: Education increases the opportunity for a child to acquire a job. Greater household income can provide support for the next generation of school-aged children in the extended family.

Child Sponsorship

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We are always keen to grow the number of children in our Child Sponsorship programme and in 2014 we welcomed a further 18 children into the project. By the end of 2014 we had funded, via our faithful child sponsors, 342 disadvantaged children to access life-changing

quality primary or secondary education.

Our long-term goal is always for development, rather than aid – we believe in empowering people to help themselves and believe there is plenty of untapped potential in marginalised communities. To this end, we set up a new initiative in 2014 to provide microfinance loans (small, soft loans) to support the caregivers in the Child Sponsorship programme. This idea grew out of the community (the best ideas always do!) and Amigos agreed to provide small cash injections to money saving groups formed by the caregivers.

As a result of these groups, the lives of 540 people were improved when 45 guardians and caregivers received funds to start, or improve, small enterprises. This could mean buying beans wholesale to sell at the market, or setting up a small doughnut making business. So many people we work alongside have the ideas, initiative and burning desire to lift themselves out of poverty, but they’re living hand to mouth and simply lack the small amount of capital needed to get started.

This successful project resulted in all households involved seeing their income increase by an average of 35%. As a result, these families can benefit from three meals a day, they can afford healthcare and medicine for their children, and they can provide academic materials and school fees for their children who are not part of the Child Sponsorship programme. This ensures sponsored children in families do not progress in isolation and that the whole family benefits from the programme. All caregivers have successfully paid back their loans in full ensuring this new initiative has longevity and sustainability so more groups can be formed and more people can benefit.

Another new initiative involved providing milking goats to a group of 40 caregivers who are part of a revolving fund scheme which ensures that every household in these groups will have goats to provide them with milk, particularly for their growing children.

In 2014 we also built on the success of last year’s child protection training and have made it a regular part of our sponsorship activities.

The Impact of Child Sponsorship

“Being able to set up a small business has restored my relationship with my wife and child and is helping me to

re-build broken relationships with my in-laws. Today, thanks to my new income, my family is back together and I am

never in fear of failing to provide food for them. With the savings scheme it doesn’t matter if you live in a remote

area, you can still move forward in your life.”

Tom Olum

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Milly Nakibuuka, 25, is an assistant chef in a busy restaurant in Kampala. Although she has a job to be proud of, she is keenly aware that her life could have turned out very differently. “If Amigos hadn’t come to my rescue I think I would be selling my body for survival or be dead from HIV,” she says simply.

Milly lost her father when she was six years old and her single mother, with four children to care for, scraped by doing laundry and carrying jerry cans of water for other people. There was no money spare for school fees, however a generous UK sponsor supported Milly throughout her primary and secondary education, followed by a course in catering.

“After graduation I immediately got a job in a restaurant and today my mother is extremely happy as I have reduced her worries. I know she will live longer now that I can contribute towards our rent and my brothers’ school fees. My dream is to start my own catering business and employ other people. At the moment I’m saving USh 50,000 (£12) per month so it’s just a matter of time. In the meantime I’ve been told I’m going to be promoted to full chef soon - this is all because of the strong foundation I received from Amigos.”

“There is joy in our home!”

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Amigos built many rainwater harvesting tanks in 2014, one of which was at St Jude’s Primary and Nursery School in Magigye. The borehole, where the children used to fetch water from was 1km away. “We could never collect enough water,” explains Dennis Oola, teacher. “The children would have to spend time fetching water when they should have been in lessons, as well as collecting water before and after school. The water from the borehole wasn’t clean and would cause stomach problems - around ten children a year would be hospitalised with typhoid.”

Today one day’s rain provides the school with a week’s worth of water thanks to the harvesting tank.

The benefits?

• The children are healthier and attendance at school has improved. Before the tank 140 children used to come to school, now 180 turn up every day.

• The children don’t have to miss lessons to collect water.

• Before the tank the kids would drink half a cup of water a day, now they can have more than 2 cups of water a day.

“As a teacher I notice that the children are very active now, they pay more attention and they can concentrate better,” says Dennis. “Before we had the tank only a handful of children in my class could concentrate, the rest were dull and lethargic from dehydration. Now the whole class is concentrating and performing better in tests. The top students used to get 60% in their exams, now they’re getting 70-80%.”

Clean Water = Better Grades

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Since 2010 Amigos has built a reputation for running innovative, tailor-made trips to Kira Farm Development Centre, Uganda. In recent years Amigos has specialised in secondary school educational trips, providing an exclusive hands-on experience. In 2014 over 120 guests stayed/volunteered at Kira Farm from different parts of the world, contributing to over half of the centre’s running costs.

Guests interact with Kira trainees on a daily basis providing them with a good understanding of how the lives of marginalised young people in Uganda are being transformed. Whilst at Kira visitors learn about global injustice and discover the potential for making the world a better place. As well as getting involved with local eco-projects, such as building rainwater harvesting jars, many visitors take the opportunity to travel north and go white water rafting on the River Nile and enjoy a safari game-drive in Murchison Falls National Park.

A Justice Journey:Our desire is that everyone who visits Amigos Uganda embarks on a journey where they explore social justice issues in the culture of an African setting. The goal is to experience and understand the lives, gifts, challenges and faith of the people they visit. Out of such an experience, it becomes clear that poverty is purely about circumstance - it is simply by good fortune that a person is born into wealth, rather than deprivation. Justice is about righting those wrongs.

Expeditions

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Tom Dunbavin joined a school trip to Kira Farm Development Centre.

“My favourite aspect of the entire trip was not Kira Farm’s amazing goat curry, or the safari, or the village dance! It was the positivity, kindness and joy that quite simply oozed from all the Ugandans I met. I learnt and saw so much and felt such a sense of achievement when we finished building the mud stoves and shelters. It doesn’t compare with any volunteering I’ve done before or since. It is truly a life changing experience which puts your own life into perspective.”

Azaria Spencer had a placement at Kira Farm as part of her Bible College course.

“I had an incredible time out in Uganda. It was such a blessing to be able to spend seven amazing weeks at Kira Farm, I learnt so much and was able to develop great friendships. Meeting my sponsored child, Praise, was fantastic. I feel overwhelmed by how incredible my time was. All the staff at Kira made me feel at home and the trainees are a great bunch, I loved learning how to be a tailor with the girls.”

Aimee Adams travelled to Uganda with a group of work colleagues to engage in eco-friendly projects, one of them being the construction of a rainwater harvesting jar. Aimee also had the opportunity to meet the child she sponsors.

“I can’t describe how special it was to meet Gastus after sending and receiving letters for three years. It was a truly humbling experience to go to his home and witness such joy and appreciation from people who have so little. My parents sponsor an older boy, Ronald, and his father gave us a gift of a sack of the most delicious avocados I have ever tasted. It was an emotional meeting – Ronald broke down when he told us how grateful he was to be sponsored. I couldn’t recommend the Amigos’ child sponsorship programme enough – it really is changing lives with a hand up, not a hand out.”

Visitors and Volunteersat Kira Farm Development Centre

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In 2015 we will:

• Add 14 new conservation farming groups to the KiRU project, building on previous success in this area and making 19 groups in all.

• Install 3 boreholes in Orom district (Cylon West, Kabokotum and Bongo-Pii villages), Northern Uganda, to provide clean water for 3600 people.

• Increase the number of children in our Child Sponsorship programme by the end of 2015 to 400 children.

• Develop the savings groups with the guardians in the Child Sponsorship programme to reach a further 43 caregivers. Ultimately the goal with the Child Sponsorship programme is to invest in guardians so they become equipped and empowered to provide for the children in their care, rather than rely on overseas sponsors. This fits with the Amigos ethos of development, rather than aid, as we recognise that it would be an almost impossible task to find enough sponsors for the poorest children in Uganda, where half of the ever-growing population is under 15.

Future Plans

• Improve the selection process for Kira Farm Development Centre and deliberately train apprentices to provide training in the rural conservation farming groups – resulting in exponential change when Kira graduates return to their villages.

• Increase food production on Kira Farm to make the centre more self-sustaining, and introduce corporate trips to Uganda.

• Develop a monitoring and evaluation framework in Uganda which will help us analyse, report on and improve understanding of the impact of our work.

• Widen our Board of Trustees to have a diverse skills base, with trustees that are actively engaged in ensuring the realisation of our vision.

• Continue to strengthen our social media presence.

• Develop our fundraising through strengthening our supporter base, building on our initial success with trust funds and growing our existing relationships with foundations.

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CorporatePartners

• Applegate • Brend Hotels • Clevera • Cope Seeds• Ed Peers Photography

SpecialThanksTo

• Trinity Church Barnstaple• Grosvenor Church

We would also like to thank the many generous individuals who continue to support our work, it would not be possible without you!

TrustandFoundations

• The Allan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust

• Ashworth Charitable Trust• Charles Hayward Foundation • Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust

• J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust• Open Gate• SMB Trust

Amigos would like to thank the following organisations for their generous support:

Thanks to you

• Ethical Addictions• Global English• Inventive Design • Just Office • Kings Carpets

• Osborns Models• Saleboards• Saltrock • TopTown Printers • World First

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Financial Summary

Individual and organisational donationsTrusts and FoundationsFundraisingOther income

Charitable spending on projectsUK AdministrationFundraisingGovernance

Total Total

£264,000£6,000

£19,000 £6,000

£204,000£26,000 £18,000

£4,000

£295,000 £252,000

“We are proud to tell you that for every £1 donated, 81p goes directly toward supporting our work in Uganda.”

PhilPugsley,CEO

InCOMInGReSOURCeS

ReSOURCeS ExPEnDED

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www.amigos.org.uk

+44 (0) 1271 377664

info@amigos.org.uk

AmigosWorldwide (Kira Farm)

@AmigosWorldwide

Amigos, 3 Boutport Street, Barnstaple, Devon eX31 1RH

RegisteredCharitynumber: 1119450RegisteredOfficeAddress: 7a Beech Grove, Pilton, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 1PZ