World Light Caring Mission Initiative (WOLICAMI) is a local indigenous, non-denominational, non-profit making Private Voluntary Organization (PVO) whose mission is to build the welfare of the people of Uganda through moral, spiritual, physical and socio-economic reconstruction.  It was initiated in 1994 and registered under the companies Act (cap.85) of the laws of Uganda. Currently, the mission is undertaking its programmes in 30 districts of Uganda.  90 development care centres referred to as Community Based Organizations (CBOs) have already been set up in the above districts.

Uganda, a country since attaining her independence on 9th October, 1962 has had more than a fair share of instabilities due to political intrigues, mutual  mistrust, suspicions, greed and all sorts of human weaknesses. Resultant to these wide spread human sufferings for Ugandan people, visitors and non-residents found in Uganda at different times have  been political witness of political murderers, state inspired abductions and killings reigning in Uganda for over 30 long and frightfully years.

The chaos in Uganda has been the main cause of death to several thousand innocent Ugandans.  This has left a multitude of widows, widowers and inestimatable number of orphans.  In addition to that, is the devastating blow to the population by the AIDS scourge, which is considered to be more severe since both parents perish leaving their offsprings on their own.  It is against this background that World Light Caring Mission Initiative came into existence to address the above problems through self-initiatives.

Location of Project Areas:

WOLICAMI has already 90 development care centres in 30 districts of Uganda.  The Mission works with various establishments, which include churches, schools, organized communities, youth and women groups.  The districts are Kampala, Mukono, Luwero, Wakiso, Mbarara, Kayunga, Bushenyi, Kamwenge, Rukungiri, Mpigi, Masaka, Busia, Bugiri, Kamuli, Palisa, Kasese, Kabalore, Masindi, Katakwi, Kibale, Mubende, Jinja, Iganga, Nebbi, Kapchorwa, Mbale, Tororo, Soroti, Kumi, Kiboga, Sironko.  Each centre has a work force of 5 employees/volunteers who are elected by the local people.  The Mission has regional co-ordination offices to link the centres to enable the head office at Kampala keep track of what is transpiring at the grassroots.

Social Economic Conditions of the Areas of Operation:

WOLICAMI areas of operation have been found to be severely devastated by the civil wars Uganda has experienced during the last thirty years and as a result social services including health and education have been severely affected while the infrastructure of many areas have been demolished.  Consequently, the country’s health system, educational institutions, and economic base have been totally destroyed propelling the population into a vicious cycle of ill-health, illiteracy, low school attendance, environmental degradation, low food production, youth migration from rural to urban area and abject poverty, moral decadency, to mention but a few.  About 99% of the people we work with are subsistence peasant farmers with low income generating activities.  WOLICAMI endeavors to work with the community to address these mentioned and other problems (causes) on a self-help basis and not only that but also find possible solutions.

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS OF WOLICAMI:

a) To develop and improve the social economic conditions of the community.

b) To raise environmental awareness of the community.

c) To raise the local skills and expertise in farming methods.

d) To improve the health and nutritional standards of the community.

e) To improve the earning capacity of the community.

f) To improve and develop the moral, and spiritual behaviours of the community.

PROGRAMME AREAS:

WOLICAMI programme areas include:

1. Planning and implementing community development and educational projects.

2. Planning and implementing self-help projects.

3. Planting health centres and churches

4. Integrated community development schemes.

5. Integrated community development programmes for socially and financially disadvantaged children.

6. Widows and disabled projects

7. Sustainable agricultural projects.

8. Aids control and mitigation program.

9. Men, Women and Youth projects

10. Environmental rehabilitation and protection program.

11. Functional adult education program

12. Micro-Finance enterprise projects.

13. Human Rights Program

14. Child care education sponsorship program

15. Emergency Relief Programs

16. Computer training programme / Internet Programme (Tele-centres.).

17. Water and Sanitation program

TARGET GROUPS:

WOLICAMI does not discriminate any person by gender, race, political or religion when it comes to community development.

Our target groups are the people both in urban and rural areas who are socially disadvantaged , economically active but poor, Illiterates and in poor health.

Wolicami Operation Policies:

1.         -  It establishes community based development care centres on Division, county or sub-county level through LCs I, II & III.

2.         -  This PVO mainly enters in partnership with churches, schools and organized community groups.

3.         -  The established centres are governed by the Initiative but the administration of the centres is managed by the beneficiaries.

4.        -  The organization reserves the right to make final decisions on matters concerning the projects within the centre.

5.         -  The local community makes a contribution to fund the establishment of the centre in order to create a sense of ownership of the development programme within the centre and this contribution is for processing documents, photographs, communication between centres and the Head office, training centre leaders in the project planning, management and transport, it also helps in finding agencies to support the proposed developmental projects within the centre.  Therefore the contribution is non-refundable.

Current Activities:

As already mentioned.  WOLICAMI has already established 90 development care centres in 30 districts of Uganda.  About 35,000 socially disadvantaged children who need assistance towards their education, health and general welfare, have already been identified and registered.  We are in the process of looking for possible sponsors.  Elder orphans and needy children have also been identified; and these need vocational training for most of them have reached ages which do not allow them to attend formal primary education.  Illiterate elders have also been identified and registered.  We are looking for a donor who can assist us in building a pool of funds to run this project.  Other activities are not put into action due to lack of resources.

ACHIEVEMENTS.

WOLICAMI has managed to achieve the following:

1)       Carried out and identified people’s problems.

2)       Established 90 community development care centres (CBOs).

3)       Registered 35,000 needy children and orphans

4)       Established regional offices with their Headquarters at Kampala.

5)       Managed to get land for some centres to construct schools, clinics and recreational halls/vocational institutions.

6)       Engaged in capacity building of the beneficiaries through micro-finance training programme for poverty alleviation and self-sustainable development.

7)       Building the capacity of the centre leaders in project planning and management.

8)       Carried out seminars and workshops in project planning, implementation and management at the centres for beneficiaries, centre leaders, social workers, and other responsible people.

9)       Managed to sponsor some of the registered children mentioned above in six districts.

PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES:

a) The organization lacks seed money in operating its duties.

b) The organization has limited staff due to lack of funds to pay for their services.

c) The mission lacks resources most especially for training our partners in different skills.

d) The organization has no reliable transport of its own.

e) The organization faces a great challenge of expectations from community members thinking that it has a lot of money.  They expect quick results thinking that programmes can materialize in a very short time, while there is need for long term planning.

f) The organization depends on local contribution from community, which is very little and not reliable.

g) The organization has not been able to get priority from those who can fund its programmes.

Possible areas of cooperation:

1.              WOLICAMI needs to be included in all workshops organized by the Secretariat of the children either local or international.

2.              It needs to share information with Secretariat of the Children and other organizations, which can lead to the development and improvement of its services.

3.              WOLICAMI needs to be assisted for its CBOs in the 90 development care centres which it has already established partnership with.

4.              The organization needs to be assisted with training facilities so that it can organize seminars and workshops for its partners at the local level.

5.              It needs assistance in finding and getting donors who can fund its priority programmes most especially those which involve: (a) Micro finance programmes.  (b) Child Care Sponsorship Programmes.  (c)  AIDS Control and Mitigation Programme. 

OUR FUTURE PLANS:

Our future plans are  predominantly influenced by the by the fact that our areas of operation have been almost completed destroyed by years of warfare and that the local people's efforts alone need considerable supplement if the original status and wanted development is to be achieved.

The plans consists of a number of related sequential steps;

a) a statement of policy

b) a statement of objectives

c) The action plan itself consists of programmes

d) The prioritization of those programmes.

WOLICAMI seeks to further its aims and aspirations if you and us can come together to fight together. For any other details look to the PROJECTS page for the currently running projects or CONTACT US.

Development Policy:

The basic policy is to reconstruct and rehabilitate the area’s  infrastructure and return it to at least its former productive position remembering that this in itself will not be enough, as the world has moved further since these areas started experiencing negative development.  This needs a well coordinated plan.

Development Objectives:

The above policy therefore suggests that the well-being programme for these areas should be divided into number of phases, which indicate the urgency of the need and priority activities.

a)                  - The short-term objectives of rehabilitating the area’s productive asset and social infrastructure.

- The long-term objectives of initiating or promoting means intended to uplift the people’s living standards, at least to an acceptable minimum level

Action Plan:

Because of the civil wars damage, work needs to be done in virtually every sector.  All things however, cannot be done at once, thus particularly due to limited resources and partially because of the need to phase certain things sequentially, a chart indicating prioritization of programmes has been drafted.  Since the programmes will be too large for any sponsor is limited by time, there is need to solicit for funds from many sources.  The plan had been divided into three major components i.e.

Short-term plan                  1 – 3 years

Medium term plan              1 – 2 years

Long-term plan                  4 – 10 year

Project Prioritization:

Conclusion:

Realistically speaking, World Light Caring Mission attempt towards rehabilitation, reconstruction and development should be viewed and judged in its full and proper context.  It is the people who have willingly requested the mission to work together with them so that they can improve their standards and conditions of living on self basis. 

When these people at the grassroots who are the contributor to the national economy receive proper guidance, funding and capacity building, the unpleasant problems of object poverty, ignorance, disease, unemployment, illiteracy, environment developmental degradation and rural to urban migration and many others will then be circumvented. 

I therefore welcome your support for the development and improvement of the condition of living for our people in particular and the country of Uganda at large.

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