PROGRAMS AT HAND
Everything we do is connected. A girl in school becomes a woman who earns. A woman who earns does not accept violence to survive. A community free from violence advocates for itself. An advocating community shapes the NDP IV priorities that govern all of the above.
Skilling for AGYW
Adolescent Girls & Young Women — Skills. Healing. Independence. A new beginning.
Young women aged 16–24 who have survived GBV, displacement or poverty enrol in a 6-month programme at the Home of Hope in Boroboro, Lira. They receive vocational training (hairdressing & cosmetology; tailoring & garment cutting), life skills and financial literacy, psychosocial counselling, primary healthcare via Boroboro HCIII and mentorship from women who have walked this path before.
Solome Achola (December 2022) now earns UGX 20,000 a week and is saving for her own salon. In 2023–24, 49 of 50 enrolled girls graduated, each receiving a full startup kit. The 2025–26 cohort: 20 girls enrolled.
Social Protection & Rehabilitation
Safe spaces. Real protection. Restored dignity.
Protection is active, it is showing up, building safe spaces and standing between the vulnerable and those who would harm them. This programme covers GBV prevention and survivor response, psychosocial support, child protection case management, emergency legal aid and juvenile justice support.
Ongoing safe space construction at Friesen Harvey’s HoH a permanent rescue and SRHR information hub aligned with Uganda's NDP IV Human Capital and Resilience pillars.
Self-Help Group (SHG) Initiative
A savings circle is an economy of trust.
Through the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model, our SHGs operate with transparent systems, collective accountability and transformative results. Members access loans at 5% interest and receive financial literacy and business development training.
This work directly reinforces Uganda's Parish Development Model (PDM) under NDP IV, CAPAIDS is the community-level actor that makes it real.
Local Hero Initiative
Every community has unsung heroes. We see them.
The Local Hero Initiative recognises and supports community volunteers who care for the most vulnerable: bedridden people living with AIDS, children in crisis, women in danger. Originating with bicycles for last-mile HIV/AIDS care delivery, it has evolved into our broader community mobilisation strategy across all thematic areas.
Today, Local Heroes follow up education beneficiaries, deliver SRHR information, monitor SHG members and carry out home-based care. Sustainable development is led by the people who stay.
Local Leadership Labs
Shifting power where it belongs to communities.
As National Convenor for the Local Leadership Labs project (with CIVICUS Global Alliance), CAPAIDS coordinates a nationwide co-creation programme engaging local government, civil society and media across Uganda's regions. Labs in 13 districts produced Uganda's first community-authored position paper: 'The Status of Locally Led Development in Uganda.'
14 co-conveners implemented community prototypes including a Community-Led School Improvement Initiative and a Community Health Accountability System. The Local Leadership Consortium formed by participants now operates with CAPAIDS as Secretariat.