Katy Gabel and Verna Rainers
28 May 2008
(Page 3 of 3)
So your programs are all based on ideas from young people?
We've created formal programs around these organically-emerging ideas. Our programs are directed by the chairman of our board, Humphreys R. Were.
We also encountered gender issues. Girls and women involved in our programs were feeling left out, so we worked to give them a voice. Our youth have taken the messages of Uzima to heart. They've become very involved in conflict mediation and have even traveled to participate in international conflict mediation processes with youth in Gaza involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and so on.
How are you funded, and what do you need to keep Uzima going?
We have received funding from the Ford Foundation and from the World Bank, but the funding overall has been minimal. We pay many of our staff salaries out of our own pockets. The problem is that other international organizations poach them after they've had some experience with us. The international organizations can offer better salaries and the like. It's not surprising – they're very good people – reliable, competent workers. So we lose them. We'd like to establish an endowment fund so that we can keep staff on at least two-year contracts, because we lose good staff all the time.
Related:
The Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize 2008
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