The Purple Ray (โ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ง๐จ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐โ) is a locally registered community based non- profit organization REG NO: 1090 and 1968 in Rukungiri and Kasese Districts respectively. Founded in 2016, The Purple Ray aims to spearhead & facilitate a transition of young people from societal challenges they face to an emphasis on the opportunities that exist to help them reach a better quality of life in Uganda. The Purple Ray encourages and strengthens collective social, economic, cultural, and environmental, peace and technological initiatives developed by youth themselves. We strive and Endeavor to remove obstacles to youth empowerment so that youth are able to exploit their natural abilities in order to realize their lifetime dreams. Our services are supported through various mechanisms including funding from development partners, partnerships with other development and capacity building partners, community engagement and donations.
๐๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ฏ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ง ๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ (๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐จ๐ญ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ).
Our aim is to nurture, empower & develop a complete youthโ
๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐ญ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฉ – In & out of School Youth: Ages 05 to 30 years.
๐๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐๐๐ก:
We promote, facilitate and ensure Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach. This is an intentional, pro social approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive; recognizes, utilizes, and enhances young peopleโs strengths; and promotes positive outcomes for young people by providing opportunities and youth appropriate platforms, fostering positive relationships, and furnishing the support needed to build on their natural abilities and life aspirations. Therefore, our youth interventions are delivered through youth appropriate mechanisms including peer groups, trainings, youth councils, community dialogues, youth development initiatives, sports, Art and culture, livelihood support, youth innovation hubs, vocational centers and mentorship programs.
The Purple Ray Strategic Objectives
- To encourage and support innovative approaches to existing social and educational structures for better impact on the welfare and development of the young people
- To encourage and support young people initiatives that foster a culture of volunteerism, social responsibility, creativity and self -actualization.
- To encourage co-curricular among youth as a means of promoting healthy living
- To encourage and support community based environmental friendly projects that generate income and create jobs for young people.
| ย Vision | A Society with Holistically Empowered Young People |
| Missionย | Our mission is to promote positive youth development (PYD) by working with stakeholders to empower under privileged youth. |
| Values | Integrity, Accountability, commitment, Dignity, honesty, love |
Education & Life Skills development
Education is the key to development and to the improvement of the lives of young people, and as such has been identified as a priority area in internationally agreed development goals, including the SDGs. Education is important in eradicating poverty and hunger and in promoting sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth and sustainable development. Increased efforts towards education accessibility, quality and affordability are central to national and global development efforts. We promote an integrated education and life skills promotion program that emphasizes the development of both academic knowledge and critical life skills. Evidence shows that whether at school, work or in our personal lives, everyone needs life skills in order to deal effectively with the challenges. More importantly, education experts believe that such skills, when instilled in learners, are used to boost their education qualifications. Our non-academic school-based interventions are layered with existing school activities. For community engagement in promotion of young peopleโs education, we work with households and communities to advocate for increased access to quality and affordable education for all. We work and coordinate with communities, schools, CSOs and government institutions to reduce gender inequity in education by promoting education of the girl child. For In-school environmental protection and climate change awareness creation activities, we target schools around protected areas to implement our school-based climate change education programs using the โUN CC: Learn | Integrating Climate Change in Education at Primary and Secondary Levelโ resource guide.
Entrepreneurship, vocational skills training and Innovation
The Purple Ray believes in and promotes technical skills-based education as the solution to the unemployment problem facing young people in Uganda. The skilling approach complements the new MOES competence based Secondary School curriculum. We promote innovation, general vocational education and training, either at schools or on the job as a necessary precondition for the employability and productivity of young people. Vocational education and training is a crucial element as it has been proved to link young people โs competences with employers โneeds. We believe that bringing vocational training closer to the needs of dynamically changing and evolving labour markets and economies will help young people move into more productive and sustainable jobs. Our Job Creation, Entrepreneurship and vocational training program targets youth in marginalized communities including those in hard to reach and protected areas to ensure provision of alternative job searching or employment creation skills as a measure for reducing dependency and pressure on natural resources for income generation among the youth. We are developing a youth innovation centre that will act as a hub of new ideas, incubation and innovations in job creation.
Climate Change Resilience and adaption:
Our environmental preservation and climate change resilience interventions target both youth and adults neighbouring disaster prone and protected areas. The main objective is to improve biodiversity conservation and sustainable, climate-resilient use of natural resources in and around protected areas. Our Model-is built on assumption that environmental preservation and climate change solutions can only be accelerated by individuals, communities and stakeholders taking collective action towards solutions, which include conservation, mitigation, adaptation, and innovation.
Our climate change resilience activities including climate smart agriculture are aimed at promoting nature friendly and inclusive economic growth and decent jobs for both adults and youth. We carry out climate change and environmental protection literacy programs for awareness creation in both schools (clubs) and communities (dialogues) especially those around fragile ecosystems and protect areas. We actively promote and advocate for creation of more nature friendly alternative employment and income generating opportunities for youth and adults prioritizing marginalized groups neighbouring protected areas and schools. We train to equip the youth living around natural forests and schools with the skills and knowledge to produce energy-efficient cookers out of domestic waste materials for income generation while reducing the demand for wood fuel, vocational and business training for self-employment and gardening. We have trained and supported various groups of out of school youth and young women to practice apiary, fish farming, and permaculture and mushroom growing as proven sustainable and climate change resilient practices.
Our programming highly values active community and local government participation and engagement from activity planning to implementation and ensures beneficiary participation in program monitoring. We deploy community led and driven approaches to mobilize, facilitate and enable target communities to effectively participate in design of locally led community resilience and sustainable protected areas management practices.
Adolescent sexual and reproductive health promotion
Many young people around country are on the onset of adolescence which brings not only changes to their bodies but also new vulnerabilities to human rights abuses, particularly in the areas of sexuality, marriage and childbearing. Girls in particular are coerced into unwanted sex or marriage exposing them to the risk of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV, and high-risk childbirth. Adolescent boys are at risk, as well. Evidence shows that young people (both boys and girls) are disproportionately affected by HIV. However, too many young people face barriers to reproductive health information and care. Even those able to find accurate information about their health and rights may be unable to access the services needed to protect their health. The Purple Ray implements a community based ASRH program that focuses on increasing access to critical adolescent sexual and reproductive health services among young people in hard to reach settings prioritizing services to test treat and prevent common adolescent health related diseases and HIV. TPR program adopted the proven youth group (Safe Space) based approach to delivery of targeted essential youth health and socio-economic services. The approach is curriculum based aimed at reaching the targeted young people using evidence-based information and services in health and socio-economic services. All our adolescent health services are provided through working in partnerships, linkages and referrals with community-based health structures (VHTs), Public Health Facilities and other CSO based health service providers