Empowering Communities through Gender-Inclusive Training
Our latest initiative in collaboration with NSETTE FOUNDATION UGANDA focused on empowering the people of Walanga village through targeted training programs. This project aimed to build leadership, promote gender equality, and enhance community participation. By providing tailored education and resources to children, young mothers, and grandmothers, we’re helping to create a more inclusive and resilient community.
Walanga Village is a rural community located in Uganda's Eastern Region. The village faces several challenges, including limited access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. Traditional gender roles often limit the participation of women and children in governance and decision-making processes, further exacerbating these challenges. Despite facing challenges such as limited access to education and healthcare, the village is filled with potential and resilience.
NSETTE Foundation is a Ugandan NGO dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable communities through education, health services, and empowerment initiatives. Recognizing the urgent need for inclusive development in Walanga, NSETTE Foundation reached out to EIGID to collaborate on a comprehensive training program aimed at addressing these issues by empowering children, young mothers, and grandmothers. The partnership was aimed at building local capacity, promote gender equality, and foster sustainable community development.
The project brought together children, young mothers, and grandmothers—groups often excluded from formal civic spaces—to explore, understand, and engage with democratic values in ways that reflect their realities and voices.
This training is not a generic workshop. It is a modular, participatory learning experience tailored to rural or under-resourced contexts. Its methodology combines non-formal education tools, such as storytelling, role-play, and community mapping, with locally grounded content that participants can connect with and act upon.
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Each group engages with materials adapted to their needs and life stages:
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Children are introduced to the fundamentals of rights, fairness, and democratic decision-making through games and dialogue.
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Young mothers reflect on social norms, power, and leadership, building the skills and confidence to participate in family and community life.
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Grandmothers are engaged as knowledge-holders and allies in social transformation, bridging generations and anchoring change in cultural continuity.
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The impact of the Walanga pilot was immediately visible: children articulating their rights with clarity and joy; women initiating community discussions on fairness; elders sharing stories that sparked new dialogue. And most importantly, it was the community itself that shaped the learning process, ensuring relevance, ownership, and sustainability.
We are now turning this experience into a replicable, low-cost training toolkit that can be adapted by other organizations across Uganda and beyond. This includes training guides, facilitation techniques, evaluation tools, and localization support.
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EIGID offers this training model as part of our wider work in gender-inclusive democracy. We work with NGOs, schools, community-based organizations, and institutional partners to:
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Implement the training in new communities
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Adapt the methodology to different regions and populations
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Train local facilitators in participatory civic education
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Monitor, evaluate, and scale impact together
Whether you’re looking to strengthen your civic education programming, engage women and youth more meaningfully, or build inclusive, rights-based community initiatives, we are ready to collaborate.
