Empower And Care Organization (EACO) - Mukono, Uganda

About EACO
EACO is a community based organisation that provides physical and psychosocial support to:
• marginalized and at-risk women, particularly widows,
• vulnerable children and orphans,
• young people and
• the elderly

The organisation seeks to empower these groups of people through economic development, which it achieves through education programs, vocational training, and the provision of health care.

EACO also campaigns for Poverty, HIV/AIDS and human rights awareness and provides direct support to children who have been orphaned as a result of:
• Poverty,
• HIV/AIDS,
• Violence, and
• Displacement by War or Conflict.

Over the last 8 years we have been successful at generating kind donations for such things as a Bee Keeping project all of  

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which go some way to empower the vulnerable people of rural area. These are, more often than not, women, vulnerable children and all with HIV who have rural skills such as farming and beekeeping.

It is our way of addressing rural poverty and general health issues.

But we could do more.

About the people we serve

A large number of vulnerable people falling into the above categories live in the Mukono and Buikwe Districts.

They have few or no opportunities to participate in decisions concerning their wellbeing because of their vulnerability, usually poverty and gender, or their age.

As a result of the lack of sources of income, they are unable to meet their most basic needs.

A lack of professional skills is a leading obstacle to development in the rural Mukono Communities. This hinders the population from actively improving their lives in a sustainably manner, especially at community level. The overall agricultural productivity development rate in Mukono District is still very low and varies depending on the sub-county geographical locations.

The average poverty rate in the district is 40% and abject poverty is commonly experienced in this rural area. This social problem derives from low household productive skills and lack of resources for production.


Where does EACO go now
After 8 years of appealing for funds from various very generous groups we feel we are at a watershed.
What we feel we need to do is to place EACO on a firmer footing.
We would like permanent funding
The dream solution is to obtain regular funding so that we can more rapidly develop our organisation into a sustainable business and provide the people of Mukono and Buikwe Districts with a business vehicle that stimulates small and individual business by opening up markets never considered before.
This will generate further business opportunities for individuals and EACO’s ambition is to facilitate this business generation.
We would also like to engage further professionals to train people in basic skills so that they can generate an income for themselves.
We want to set up projects that can help EACO stand on its own.
We do realise that our dream is a big ask so we will continue to plead for adhoc contributions and move to generating income from our activities. However this will probably mean that the pace of the development will be significantly reduced.
We have set ourselves a target that by 2020 EACO must have strong income generating projects that can bring in sufficient income to:
• support the ongoing projects,
• contribute support to donations,
• employ a permanent staff,
• have permanent accommodation and
• own permanent transport.

We do hope that you are able to help us in our endeavour and look forward to hearing from you.