South Sudanese Women Building Association (SSWBA)

South Sudanese Women Building Association (SSWBA) is a Non-governmental, Non-profit Refugee Women Led Organization engaged in relief/humanitarian initiatives to support women, youths, refugees and Immigrants residing in refugee settlement, within Uganda and outside. Through various demand driven & human cantered programs, our interventions focus on Participatory Integrated Development (PICD) approach through harnessing IDEAS, INNOVATION and INVESTMENT and leaving no one behind so that the beneficiaries become self-reliant and are able to meet their basic needs and contribute positively towards a sustainable society. SSWBA invests in the capacity of the women and youths thereby building community capacity through a self-help approach Mara Suja that focuses on attitude/mindset change, self-reliance (doing it ourselves), visioning, strategic action planning, fulfillment strategies & action towards an all-inclusive relief & development process that the communities fully contribute to (re-engineer), own and lead so that solutions are desirable, technically feasible & economically viable. The principle of Mara Suja is that the communities who face the different challenges know about them better and are best placed to generate effective solutions and address their own challenges. Mara Suja further believes that the communities have the resources, ideas & the power to transform except have constraints & vulnerabilities hence Mara Suja unlocks community potentials and facilitates the change process by addressing the constraints & vulnerabilities. Mara Suja has created a comprehensive vision strategy that builds on Economic Empowerment, Gender & Human rights interventions, Women leadership, Peaceful co-existence, Functional Adult Literacy. Our target group among others include; Women, Girls, OVC, Children, Youth and Most at Risk Populations (MAP). SSWBA is registered with Kiryandongo District Local Government, registration Number CD/5158 and with the Registrar of Companies at the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) Reg No 80034331845447. The structure of SSWBA consists of an Annual General Assembly, Governing Board, and Executive Director who is the head of management unit, Program Director, Programs Manager, other senior level, mid-level, support & field staff and volunteers. The Organization accepts contributions locally & externally. Funds available for activities are only invested in prescribed activities within Uganda unless authorized by the AGM in consonance with national laws and guidelines of the foreign country. WHO WE ARE: Vision: A community where women have efficient human capacities & good quality of life for Sustainable Development. Mission: To Empower women and youths in and outside the settlement for positive Socio-Economic Development. Goal: To deliver developmental and empowerment programs and activities that promote women, girls and youths through simple & practical approaches. THE PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: ● To provide humanitarian and charitable support, empower women, girls and youth and provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the best of its abilities. ● To mobilize resources to support and empower women, girls and youth through its various activities so that they become self-reliant and contribute positively towards a sustainable community. ● To advocate for refugees' rights, promote gender equality, and empower women and girls by removing any barriers that prevent their full participation in society. ● To promote the reduction of Sexual Gender-Based violence in households and gender equality in our processes. ● To promote peaceful co-existence among the women, between refugees, between refugees & host communities in the settlement, the District, Uganda and abroad. ● To contribute to the improvement of behavior/mindset change activities, community mobilization, awareness creation, radio spots, health education, behavior change campaigns, family planning education, and fight against HIV/AIDS. ● To contribute to the reduction of challenges of energy for cooking among the refugees and host women within and outside the settlement. CORE VALUES ● Transparency and accountability, act in open and responsible manners and taking responsibilities of all omissions and commissions when executing its mandates. ● Integrity: Promote honesty, truthfulness, maintaining social ethical and organizational norms firmly adhering to codes of conduct and ethical principles. ● Humility: “True humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less”. This is an organizational virtue that enables us to see the world as it is with all the challenges hurting it. ● Audacity: - “We have a dream, we have a vision, we have a mission, we have to do something, we will do it at this time”. This organizational virtue enables us to imagine how the ideal world should be. ● Courage: - “Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid, it means you don’t let fear stop you” This organizational virtue makes us boldly create the change we envision. MAIN AREAS OF FOCUS: Economic Empowerment: Engagement of women and girls in socio-economic empowerment programs e.g., Climate Smart Agriculture, Vocational Skills Training, Business Skills Development, clean energy, Financial Literacy, Life Skills Development, Income generating activities, Formation of VSLA groups and training on microfinance. Gender & Human rights interventions through reducing Gender Based Violence, Menstrual Hygiene Management, Women Safe spaces, Women Groups, HIV/AIDs awareness and prevention, SRHR and Nutrition, mental health and psychosocial support. Women/Girl leadership through promotion of Good governance, Women involvement in planning, budgeting, budget management, local leadership and other decision-making processes. Peaceful co-existence through promoting peace building, conflict transformation, conflict sensitive programming, promoting Do No Harm Approaches among the women and the refugee population, refugees & Host Communities. Functional Adult Literacy through promotion of Family Basic Education, Promotion of Numeracy & Literacy among Women & Girls. Clean Energy and Environmental Conservation: Through training of community in the clean energy sources, briquettes production, distribution and sales and environmental protection through construction of Lorena energy cooking stoves in homes, training of making briquettes, distribution of fruit and logs seedlings/tree planting and organizing community dialogues and sensitization on climate change and global warming. Advocacy Initiatives. Through advocating for refugee rights including rights to work, right to movement, involvement in local decision making at both local, national and international level as well as identifying community issues issues and recommending a solution to the them.

We are involved in briquettes production, distribution and sales, awareness creation on environmental conservation and tree growing, mindset change, partnership and collaboration, peaceful coexistence and general protection and tailoring training for women and girls.