Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) is an interfaith peace building and conflict transformation organization formed in 1997 as a proactive response to the conflict in Northern Uganda. ARLPI brings together leaders of six different religious sects/denominations (Anglican, Catholic, Muslim, Orthodox, Pentecostal, & Seventh Day Adventist) and their respective constituencies to participate effectively in transforming conflicts in Northern Uganda and the surrounding region. ARLPI’s programs are primarily conducted within the northern Ugandan districts of Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, & Pader, although they are occasionally involved in initiatives throughout Uganda and abroad.
Action for Fundamental Change and Development (AFFCAD) is located in Bwaise, Kampala, Uganda. The CC is primarily focused on working with youth and families in economically underserved communities. AFFCAD’s programs aim to unite individuals across cultural and religious divides via community partnerships and open dialogue in their communities. AFFCAD’s platforms have helped bring people together to combat common social issues present in their communities such as health, drainage system, disease outbreaks, and floods.
African Youth Peace Initiative is a registered Non Profit in Uganda, founded by young people. Our membership has now grown to 175 members from a diversity of Faith Expressions in Uganda working towards preventing violent extremism through promoting non-violence and peaceful co-existence among communities in Uganda.
Body and Soul Development CC is located in Nansana, Kampala, and was founded in 2000 as a result of a government programme centered on poverty eradication to target youth and religious leaders. The CC, through Religious institutions, religious leaders and youth leaders provides entrepreneurial skills development at the local level between different faith groups and communities.
- when one is sick, one cannot associate well with others, like wise without an upright soul, one cannot function normally; so both entities should be addressed simultaneously. Spiritual growth alongside bodily growth is what makes a complete human being. We cannot preach peace to a psychologically and spiritually sick, hungry and angry person. We call upon members to join hands and work together to contribute to the wellbeing of God’s people. A reward is waiting in heaven. This why Body and Soul Development CC was founded; remarks Joy Kemirembe, one of the founder members.
Conflict Resolution by Youth (CRY) Uganda is headquartered in Bweya Central Parish, of Wakiso District and operates both in central Uganda and in the Teso region in North Eastern Uganda particularly in the Sebei, West Nile and KALATE region namely Karamoja, Acholi, Lango and Teso. CRY Uganda is actively in Bukedea, Amudat, Kween, Kapchorwa, Bukwo, Nakapiripirit, Moroto, Napak, Ngora, Soroti, Nyoya, Kole, Oyam, Amuria, Serere, Lira, Otuke, Wakiso, Abim, Palisa, Amolatar, Katakwi and Kumi Districts working with youth to lead non-violent conflict resolution among people of Christian, Muslim and Bahai religious backgrounds and among the Iteso (dominant tribe), Karimajong and Kumam communities. CRY Uganda’s primary activities include Youth-to-youth nonviolent conflict transformation, transforming the land conflicts in the greater northern Uganda, empowering the traditional structures and leadership to reorganise and prepare to manage land conflicts as per the Uganda 2013 land policy and Uganda Land and Mineral Acts-otherwise providing legal support, to the indigenous and vulnerable communities, in particular widows from the Northern war.
Faiths Together Uganda CC is located in Seeta-Mukono, Uganda. They primarily engage youth from Muslim, Pentecostal, Anglican, SDA, African Spiritual, & Orthodox communities. Faiths Together Uganda is actively working to heal fragile communal relations in the face of recent ethnic/religious violence and polarization that swept their country and region. They use song and dance to bring members of different cultures and religions together, and to pass on the message of religious tolerance. Their main programs include interfaith-intercultural clubs on school campuses and organizing an intercultural performance troupe. Faiths Together Uganda has helped many of their youth participants forge strong relationships across cultural and religious lines through collaborative action and dialogue.
Friends of Community Health (FCOH) CC is located in Kavule Village, in Uganda. FCOH is committed to supporting community members on issues of health, income generation, education, and the environment. Their programs and exhibitions are aimed to include people of diverse faiths and traditions from the region. The CC is committed to inclusiveness and uses this approach in their programs, where all religions and cultures are given free entrance and participation.
Golden Women Vision in Uganda is a community-based organization, registered in January 2011. It was formed by the community members and social workers of Muslims, Protestants, Catholics and Seventh Day Adventist communities. They work in a vulnerable area, which is a result of the insurgency in Northern Uganda. The majority of the people have been disturbed and traumatized by violence, and some cannot, up to the present day, forgive each other for the crimes committed during the war. Some people still hold enmity against fellow village mates. Golden Women Vision in Uganda works with women to forget these challenges and to forge a positive and peaceful future for them. CC members’ aim is to improve the social-economic status of the people who were affected by the Northern Uganda war insurgency. They train the women and girls in income-generating activities such as baking, liquid soap making, pancakes, and paper beads for self-sustenance. They also organize cultural dances for the youth, to help them forget the bad memories of the past and reconstruct for a better future. The dances are also part of their leisure and help them to socialize and appreciate each other. For healing and reconstruction purposes they also undertake visits to hospitals, prisons, homes and schools.
They wish to transform the lives of the Ugandans and other people around the world through physical, practical, spiritual and emotional life skills. They provide counseling to bring back the eroded family relationships and to promote character development in the lives of the people. During the war, some people were ordered by the rebels to direct them to the hideouts of relatives and friends and they were forced to kill their own relatives. CC members facilitate the process of bringing such families together, since they are finding it difficult to forgive and reconcile with each other for the “crimes” they were forced to do against their will.
Inter-Religious and Intercultural Dialogue Programme (INTERDIP-UGANDA) was founded by Sr. Mary Gorrett Kisaakye in 1994. The CC is located in Uganda. INTERDIP is committed to promoting peace through inter-religious dialogue, peace-building activities, and the creation of peaceful and culturally harmonious co-existence. INTERDIP regularly carries out workshops in conflict resolution, and is also politically active by regularly contributing to legislation with the Ugandan parliament. The CC has participated in interfaith peace prayers during the International Day of peace at Nakivubo Stadium organized by the URI office, and different peace marches that promote Christian and Muslim relations.
IYPA is a youth-focused Community Based Organization (CBO), based in Nansana Town Council, Wakiso District in Uganda. Interfaith Youth Partnership was founded in 2003 by graduate youth who felt it necessary to mobilize fellow youth from their areas of residence and to address the poor standards of living among unemployed youth. The founders, who are all youth, are an interfaith group from the Orthodox, Christian, and Muslim faith communities.
Latter Glory CC is based out of Busoga, Uganda and consists primarily of Catholic, Muslim, Protestant and Indigenous leaders from the local community. Their CC has worked for years to combat ignorance and mistrust among individuals of different faiths by convening public interfaith dialogues and organizing peace workshops during community events. Anticipating ethnic violence to break out around the 2016 elections, Latter Glory CC is actively working to build strong bridges in their area. As leaders in the community, collaborating together across religious and ethnic lines, they are setting an example of tolerance to the rest of their community. This CC hopes to achieve sustainable social and economic development in their area by using URI’s interfaith framework.
Pamoja CC is located in Kampala, Uganda. Pamoja CC members are engaged in conflict training sessions to find alternatives solutions to violence and issues affecting youth. Pamoja CC collaborates with youth from various CCs in undertaking environmental discussions at secondary schools, training at women’s prisons in Kampala, International Day of Peace events, and soccer sporting events. The CC is focused on promoting religious tolerance through education, communication, and sports activities in an interfaith context.
Peace Kawomera Cooperative Society CC is located in Uganda and works with Jewish, Muslim, and Christian farmers from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The Eastern part of Uganda enjoys relatively amicable relations between different faith communities, and Peace Kawomera is working hard to ensure that those relations are deepened and sustained. The group cooperatively runs a coffee growing co-op where they train, employ, and buy coffee from community members of all different faiths. In addition to providing economic stability, they conduct trainings on interfaith dialogue, and encourage community members to participate in each other’s traditions.
“… Diseases do not respond to the right explanation; they respond to the right medication. Dr. Yahaya Sekagya
PROMETRA Uganda is an affiliate to PROMETRA International network with 27 chapters worldwide. It was established to act as a conduit to respond to the poor health conditions of rural communities in Uganda. It advocates for the utilization and incorporation of TM into Primary Health Care systems. Prometra Uganda a URI CC was founded to avail such alternatives to particularly Primary Health Care (PHC) for people who cannot afford to access health care, by encouraging them to use natural resources within their own immediate environment.
Prometra Uganda CC is located in Kawempe, Buyijja-Buwama Sub County, Uganda. Prometra CC was formed in 2000 to respond to the poor health conditions and inadequate modern health services by utilizing traditional medical and cultural knowledge. Prometra is committed to avail alternatives to health care and assist people who cannot afford access to health care by encouraging them to use locally available resources within their own environments. The CC’s activities include workshops on African spirituality in health, and conferences on traditional medicine, spirituality and healing. The CC’s future plans include creating impact and local change to healthcare access by active participation in URI activities, conducting research and publishing articles on indigenous knowledge in health, culture, environment and spirituality.
Restoring and Empowering Communities (REC) CC is located in Nansana, Wakiso district and convenes Latter Day Saints, Pentecostal and Muslims as well as a mix of local and regional ethnic groups and communities to promote developmental, cultural, moral and spiritual values, specifically among the primary school children, their head teachers and families. Although interfaith relations are generally centred more on individuals, REC exists to facilitate a culture of learning to live together in all aspects of life for peaceful and respectful co-existence. This is achieved through their primary programs and activities of the REC Book Clubs in schools which are intended to instil a reading culture among the young children and to facilitate access to free books to the less privileged who would otherwise not have afforded them. Through the learning to Live Together program, they also break barriers to ethnic and interfaith cooperation by enabling community members to understand themselves and others, by appreciating diversity as seen in the activities they organize during festivities, the free community clinics, and others.
Twekolerere Women’s Development CC is located in Makerere II- Zone C in Kampala district, and convenes Christian and Muslim women and men to respond to the prevailing social problems by using theatre as a tool for education. They address important issues affecting their community such as HIV and AIDS prevention, poverty, environment, and education. This performing group embodies their messages in songs, dances and drama; engaging the community through radio, TV, and live stage performances. Their primary activity is using performing arts for “edutainment” and income generation at both local and international platforms. They also operate small income generating initiatives such as tree planting and poultry farming, by employing individuals who are affected by or infected with HIV and AIDS, as a means to earn their livelihood. Twekolerere CC has about 50 members with 14 years of staging artistic performances and attracting audiences of all different faiths.
Youth Interfaith Mission Uganda is located in Kyambogo University, Kampala with branches in Kyambogo Secondary Schools and Kira Sub County Wakiso district. The CC is focused on mobilizing young people from different faith and ethnic groups to coexist in harmony. Their primary efforts are focused on helping youth who are facing difficulties meeting school tuition fees, scholastic materials, and basic needs. Youth Interfaith Mission Uganda provides spiritual and psychological mentorship to students, youth with special needs, and orphans. They network with service providers for program support and organize student group to open communication channels for students to overcome challenges together. Youth Interfaith Mission Uganda’s work has helped unite and mobilize diverse youth via spiritual upbringing and URI’s purpose of interfaith cooperation.