This website is aimed at highlighting the partnerships of the USA-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization Sahaya International with organizations in the region of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda. Sahaya International also serves as its fiscal agent to accept tax-deductible donations in the USA towards these programs.
Sahaya International, is a USA-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, founded in 1999 by UC Davis infectious disease researcher Dr. Koen Van Rompay. Sahaya International is 100% volunteer-based, and is a network of friends who volunteer their time to build awareness and support of healthcare, education, environmental and socio-economic grassroots programs in developing countries. Since its inception, Sahaya has channeled over 5 million dollars to worthy community-based programs in India, Vietnam, Uganda and Kenya. In 2020, Sahaya International learned about Rafiki, and is committing to help Mushamba forward his mission of being a change-maker to save the gorillas. For more information, visit www.sahaya.org, or watch the short documentary about the origin of Sahaya, Sahaya Going Beyond (narrated by Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons).
Together with our partners, we aim to transform the indigenous communities with sustainable, conservation-based income, protect critical wildlife habitats and conserve the mountain gorilla populations.
Vision statement:
A sustainable community where people can have productive lives and live in harmony and respect with nature and wildlife, with total abolishment of poaching.
Our objectives: Educate – Empower – Conserve
- To educate the local communities about the importance of the country’s wildlife, by creating awareness campaigns against vices like poaching on all major media platform, including radio, television, music and drama shows.
- To create community participation in domestic tourism activities to assure that they receive the benefits from the tourism, to promote their rights and responsibilities, provide them with sustainable livelihood, and instill in them a sense of belonging in their beloved country, Uganda.
- To create awareness for the local community of epidemic diseases (such as cholera, dysentery and others).
- To promote human rights, including the right to girl child education. Aids for charity Uganda, will help educate community members about the importance of educating girl children and why they should be given the opportunity to go to school. In addition to empowering girls and women, this will also reduce the number of early marriage and child pregnancies.
- To provide skill-training to people in the community, especially the youth, to make them independent and self-sustaining. Examples are art, farming, carpentry, brick laying, and soap making. With these skills, they will engage into commercial business and therefore improve their way of life.
- To provide the youth, orphans and children with disabilities with basic equipment like sewing machines and other infrastructure to start a job and support them to become organized in community-based working units to affectively run and manage their business.
- To undertake any other work that promotes general welfare of the people by meeting their most urgent needs. This includes medical assistance to people suffering from diseases like HIV/AIDS and cancer.
- To mobilize resources to assist orphans and other vulnerable children to give them a proper education and a productive life in society. Without interventions, these children and youth are prone to waste their time and engage in improper behavior.
- To protect the disadvantaged, whether it is an individual or a community section, from any form of exploitation and discrimination. This will be done through empowering and guiding the disadvantaged and improving their economic status by training them on income-generating activities (e.g., farming).