All-In-One Family Empowerment Group (AFEG) was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee with Uganda Registration services bureau on 2nd November 2018 under Reg. No. 80020001395316. On 1st April 2019 it was registered as an indigenous NGO with ministry of internal affairs under the non-governmental organizations act 2016 with Reg. No. INDR142891947NB and legally operating in the districts of Namayingo, Busia, Bugiri and Mayuge with permit No. INDP0001947NB.
Given the high dropout rates of children from school, child trafficking, gender-based violence, child labour, increasing disease burden, soaring food insecurity and environmental degradation around Lake Victoria coupled with high poverty levels and decline in behavioral patterns AFEGR with its limited resources started by mainly focusing on empowering families to be more productive and increase their household income.
Whilst the high vulnerability level of women and girls in communities which has culminated to most NGOs/INGOs focusing on girls and women in their empowerment approaches, we realized that there is need for a holistic approach to family empowerment where the family should be looked at as a single unit. The great focus on girls and women have left boy child and men in the families vulnerable. On the other hand, much as most empowerment strategies focus on women and girls, men have remained key decision makers in most African families. in our approach, we recognize all the foundational factors leading to high levels of vulnerability such as age, gender, level of education, cultural beliefs, location and religious affiliations among others but over the years we have realized that any person can become vulnerable at any time and as such, we look beyond the traditional definitions of these factors and critically assess individual members of a household to deeply understand the specific components of a family that make some members more vulnerable in order to come up with specific components leading to vulnerability of a family to enable us come up with an empowerment strategy that is tailored to specific needs of the most vulnerable persons.
Therefore, we use a holistic approach that looks at the entire family as a single unit hence our name of All-In-One Family Empowerment Group stems from this back ground. As AFEGR, we believe that Empowering a family holistically, creates a strong foundation and sustainable approaches to end poverty and subversive gender-based violence that is common in most African families. In our activities as we create awareness about children and women’s rights, we recognize the roles and responsibilities played by men and boys in these families and communities and we involve them in our programming to create sustainable development outcomes. Our approach empowers families to make informed decisions as a single unit, as opposed to decisions made separately by either women, men, girls or boys in a family. This approach brings a family together in decision making and draws on their strengths of shared experiences to provide innovative and yet sustainable solutions.
Today, AFEGR has expanded its activities and we have empowered youths with skills for self-reliance, mobilized communities to form groups, trained farmers, promoted savings culture and empowered them to invest in income generating activities.
