Sustainable Development

Sustainable development means ‘development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Under this programme, Set Them Free International focus mainly on the relief of poverty and the improvement of the livelihoods of people in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. The specific objective  of  this  project  is  to  empower rural people economically and educationally to enable them participate in Income Generating Activities (IGAs); initiate the community to advocate for support and education of the girl-child; to increase the enrollment of girls in the school; to change the life of poor women and their families through establishing IGAs and as well empower their households economically.

In a Nut shell: Major activities carried out include conducting community mobilization workshop for women from different rural communities, educational support to poor girls in schools, training of women in income generating activities, revolving fund provision for poor women and engaging them in different income generating activities and recruitment of women field officers/trainers among the beneficiaries.

Rationale of the Programme:In Africa, particularly in Uganda, the majority of the population live in rural areas, is engaged in agriculture, and lives in poverty. Poor people define poverty as not just the lack of incomes, but also the lack of means to satisfy basic and social needs, as well as a feeling of powerlessness to break out of the cycle of poverty, insecurity of person and property. Poverty is caused by factors that include among others, inadequacies in access to natural resources, human factors, financial assets, social capital and physical infrastructure. The multitude of these causes of poverty clearly show the frustration poor people face in trying to move out of poverty. Poverty is mainly a rural phenomenon as 48% of the rural population is below the absolute poverty line, compared with 16% of urban dwellers. Since more than 85% of the of the population live in rural areas, any interventions must first and foremost focus on these areas. Statistics show that one of the main ways of reducing poverty in rural areas of Uganda has been the tradition empowerment of rural people in income generating activities, education, agriculture, health among others.

The principal dimensions of poverty in Uganda include gender, livelihood, location and seasonally. Women have not benefited as much as men from the decreases in poverty noted in recent years. The main reason for this is that, women do not have as many opportunities for social and economic development particularly in rural areas. Secondly, the division of labour in Uganda is complex. Women are generally confined within the four walls of working hard from dawn to dusk but their work is not counted as a contribution to the family and as a result women have lost their confidence as human being.

Rural people face barriers in participation in community development activities due to lack of mobilization, lack of time and failure to see the benefit of their participation. In most they are discriminated against in land and production factors.The HIV/AIDS pandemic has also had other wide-ranging effects on households in rural areas. HIV/AIDS has severe impacts on women and girls, as a result of gender specific division of family care, labour and resource control, as well as gender-related discrimination. Families often lose members during their most productive time of life. HIV/AIDS further intensifies the workload and responsibilities of women and girls in rural areas since they have to care for the sick and provide for dependent orphans. Another hindrance to the success of rural people in remote areas is the access to education, Education is central to all and especially to rural people in the fight against poverty. However, access to education is still low.

For more information on how to partner with STFI under this programme click here.