May 2025 Newsletter

Building Long-Term Resilience

The immediate protection work that we do to support children who are living or working on the street is vital, especially in light of a continuing cost of living crisis in Uganda.

However, we know that unless we address the root causes of children turning to the street, we are unlikely to have long term success with resettlements back to families.

One of the main causes of poverty in Uganda is the impact of climate change, which has had a detrimental impact on farming across the country. This means that there are an increasing number of families who are failing to secure enough food and going hungry. We then see an increase in the number of children turning to the streets for survival.

It is therefore vitally important that S.A.L.V.E. is working to build capacity within communities, delivering programmes that increase skills, knowledge and experience, ensuring that families can be independent and self-sustaining. Our Business Development Programmes – delivered by our Community Team – are designed to support the families of street connected young people to generate a reliable income, improving nutrition, opening opportunities for education and, ultimately, reducing the risk of children turning to the street.

2025 promises to be a busy year for our Community Team as they deliver four different Business Development Programmes:

Our Business Programmes

Participants of our Main Business Programme take part in a three day training programme at S.A.L.V.E., developing their skills and building business plans. We then provide an initial capital investment to launch their business of choice. Regular follow-ups and mentorship ensure the business has the best chance of succeeding. Whether it’s skills-based services like tailoring or hairdressing, or customer-facing enterprises like market stalls or food stands, we’re proud to have successful businesses operating across the whole of the country!

Our Single Mothers Programme focuses on supporting women in Jinja, close by to S.A.L.V.E. We supplement this programme with weekly training sessions, providing a strong network of support for those who are most in need of guidance and opportunity. This programme is centred on ensuring that business solutions work around care responsibilities, supporting women to be both a primary carer and bread-winner, increasing independence and long-term stability.

Our Permaculture Business Programme provides practical skills training for families who are looking to adapt their farming methods to reduce the impact of climate change. After receiving training at our demonstration farm in Jinja, participants receive tools and seeds to boost their own farm production. Together with our staff, they then deliver peer-to-peer sessions within their own neighbourhoods, passing knowledge and skills to the wider community in their role as ‘Climate Action Changemakers’. Some of these sessions have reached over 100 attendees!

Finally, our Advanced Business Programme provides a second capital investment for families with successful businesses, who have children under the S.A.L.V.E. Education programme. The aim is to help them grow their income and create strong, sustainable businesses, with the intention that they gradually transition to paying for their children’s education in full. This reduces the reliance on S.A.L.V.E. and allows us to direct funding towards other, more vulnerable children and families.

To date, across all of our programmes, we’ve started and supported over 480 businesses! That’s a lot of lives impacted, thanks to the hard work of our Community Team.

Support our Community Development Programmes

We are grateful to receive fantastic support from individuals, trusts, foundations and corporates to deliver our Community Development programming. However, the need for our support continues to rise, and you can help us to ensure that we can continue this important prevention work.

💛 £25 could pay for three months of mentoring visits

🏫 £50 could pay for a participant to attend our three-day training programme

💵 £100 could pay for the start-up capital invested in a new business

🌱 £200 could pay for the delivery of a peer-to-peer session for 50 community members

For more information, or to make a donation to support our Community Development Programmes, visit our website.

May Lottery Winner

Finally, congratulations to Jaimini, who is this month’s lottery winner.

You can play our lottery for just £3 a month, with the chance to win £100 every draw!

For more information, and to sign up, visit our website.

Webale Nyo

Thank you for taking the time to read this email and learn more about the work that we are undertaking at S.A.L.V.E. We are proud of our impact and are looking forward to a successful year working to address the root causes of reliance on the street.

If you have any questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We are always keen to hear from you.

With optimism and thanks,

Lucas and the whole S.A.L.V.E. team