KOF Background

KOF (Karooro Okurut Foundation) is working on integrated development approaches to ensure sustainable development by empowering youth and women facing adversity in Uganda. Our activities are mainly linked with helping youth, women and vulnerable groups by enriching them with opportunities for acquiring relevant job market skills and health support initiatives in a bid to make them more self-sustainable and productive citizens.

Young people have a great deal to offer our societies, and providing them with requisite skills will serve to promote community development.

The organization extends the hand in addressing challenges affecting girls by looking specifically at the issue of Menstrual Hygiene Management because a Healthy girl child is crucial for a healthy society; we advocate for good menstrual hygiene practices to vulnerable girls and women across the country and our commitment to maintaining the physical and mental wellbeing of women has prompted our organization to start plans of developing a manufacturing plant to provide affordable low cost sanitary pads to women and girls in Uganda.

The foundation has already skilled more than 2,000 youth and women with various vocational skills in tailoring and knitting, bakery and kneading, bead making, weaving, and craft making in all types in Bushenyi District alone. KOF is looking forward to skilling more than 8,000 youth annually across the country after developing more permanent structures and acquiring more resources from our development partners and well-wishers.

KOF employs over 20 young professionals to do daily project work but our human resource requirements during peak periods such as our menstrual hygiene management drives/campaigns and skilling initiatives requires to have more than 200 employees and volunteers who come and support, train and distribute sanitary pads to women across different parts of the country.

The foundation targets youth and women in order to respond to high levels unemployment and underemployment among the groups in the question. This has resulted into both widespread personal misfortune for individuals and a lost opportunity for national and global economic development. Providing reusable sanitary pads to vulnerable to girls and women at subsidized prices will in this case help them to thrive through difficult times. We recognize that lack of accessible and affordable sanitary-ware has had far reaching implications on the Social, Psychological and Physical health of teenage girls and young women.

The foundation is therefore currently establishing a manufacturing plant that will be constructed within the five (5) acres of land available in Bushenyi District to provide reusable sanitary pads to women and girls in rural areas of Uganda. The Manufacturing facility will have the capacity of producing more than 2,000 sanitary pads per day. We also promote, lobby and support youth, women groups as well as link-minded organization’s that desire to provide youth and women with opportunities for growth, employment and better health.

KOF has since 2016 advocated for provision and support for a girl child/women, people with disabilities and vulnerable communities at large tailoring and knitting, bakery, sanitary pad making, bead making and all craft making skills with support from Private sector Foundation Uganda. KOF has also been actively advocating for wealth generation through Community programs in Ankole region (SW Uganda districts) supported by the private sector foundation of Uganda (PSFU) and Church of Uganda. A number of projects with service provision as a major component continue to be achieved. These include the first ever District wide home to home skilling (atleast two people from each family to be trained specially women and girls) in greater Bushenyi Districts and later other Districts respectively.

KOF also with support from Private Sector Foundation Uganda has been training and providing comprehensive OVC and women support to over 800 girls and women in greater Bushenyi Districts. KOF is also currently providing craft skills training services with private sector Uganda. KOF has strengthened the Uganda’s economy through training of educated and uneducated women in Craft-work, Public Gathering Decorations, Tailoring and Knitting, Bakery and Kneading, African Wear (Bitenje) designing, sanitary pads making, brick laying and many more. KOF has also recently trained few women and girls in craft making and tailoring and provides them with all the equipment’s and materials after completion of the training but more are still in need for training.

KOF implements operational research on poverty eradication, specifically skilling and other community Linkage strategies to care using evidence based approaches and new technology. KOF with support from private sector foundation of Uganda applies the use of skilled and experienced personnel in enrolling and following up of study members. KOF is among the organizations to pioneer and pilot vulnerable communities in skilling hence eliminating poverty in greater Bushenyi and other western districts.

KOF’s competencies have been demonstrated in facilitating access to and sustainability of better skilled programs and services at community level through designing and implementing relevant programs geared towards prevention and control of unemployment and eradication or mitigation of rural household poverty including orphans vulnerable women and youth girls, operational research, community skilling and programs geared toward poverty eradication in rural communities. KOF does all this working with like‐minded international and local partners (public, private and civil society) through the application of the basic principles of public and private partnerships.

Partners

KOF also implements its projects by utilizing the expertise of other organizations, as well as utilizing cooperative agreements and contracts to achieve results that contribute to the organizations goals. In addition to partnering directly with other organizations to accomplish specific objectives, KOF collaborates and coordinates with other organizations in the field to maximize the effectiveness of its projects.

Developing Partners:

Implementing Partners: