PROJECTS
Red Earth RISING believes that many of our seemingly insurmountable global problems can be addressed by improving the status of women and girls throughout the developing world. We focus on the poorest of Africa's poor: the refugee adolescent mother & child. Our goal is to help these young mothers uplift themselves and their children. This is a second chance many adolescent mothers never get. Born and raised during Uganda's 26 year long civil war, these girls have lost most, if not all, their family and role models to violence, HIV/AIDS, mental illness, and starvation. Schools, hospitals, and neglected infrastructure have left very few, if any, resources available to rise up from such devastating beginnings.
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Vocational
Village
In 2014, Red Earth Rising (RER) created the first "Instructional Village" for teen moms in the northern Uganda. Our community life is centered around self improvement, individual and community responsibility, daily vocational lessons, leadership skills all the while placing emphasis on the traditional Acholi ways and values.
Before coming to the Vocational Village these girls were living deep in the bush, forced to leave school prematurely, lacking basic reproductive health and human rights education with no one to support, teach or advise them.
The young teen moms that we assist are a gravely undeserved population. But for Red Earth RISING’s assistance—they would have no other means of creating a secure life for themselves and their child, learn a vocation or the self-empowerment skills needed to be a self sufficient citizen and community leader.
We are slowing creating a new generation of young mothers who are self sufficient when they leave us and who are dedicated to passing on their knowledge to other young mothers through our Hummingbird Project--Red Earth Rising's satellite community outreach program.
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Leadership
Red Earth Rising trains women and girls about their rights. Prior to Red Earth Rising's trainings, women and girls in this region of northern Uganda have never had the opportunity to learn about their rights regarding their health, their reproduction, their human rights and their right to live free of Sexual & Gender based Violence. Women and girls regularly ask why they have rights under "human" rights because they are 'women'. They have been conditioned to believe that women are not included under human rights. Red Earth Rising works to change this.
Our leadership trainings educate young women on their sexual and reproductive health, Sexual and Gender-based Violence prevention and healing, and how to engage as an effective community member. This includes public speaking skills and confidence building strategies.
Red Earth Rising is creating a new generation of informed women who are working to change their own communities to better support women and girls.
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The Hummingbird Project: Our Community Outreach Program
Wonderful things have been happening to the resident teen moms at the Vocational Village. They leave our village armed with a vocation and a well rounded education for life. Often, these young moms can now support their child and themselves. All of them look forward to paying the school fees to educate their children.
Many community girls would ask mid-session if they could join our classes. To meet the dual demand of empowering other community teen moms as well as encouraging our graduates to become community leaders who share their knowledge, we now have an outreach program that sends our graduates out into the bush to teach for wages. We are reaching more women and girls right we they live.
During these sessions, isolated rural women and girls learn- often for the first time- about their reproductive rights, human rights and their right to be free from sexual and gender based violence.
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Emergency Women's Shelter
During Covid, Ugandans saw a 35% increase in reported sexual/gender based violence. There are currently NO Emergency Shelters for women and girls who have experienced sexual or physical violence in this vast region of over nine million people (the size of South Carolina).
Red Earth RISING wants to change that by providing temporary shelter and counseling for the women and young girls who have experienced sexual assault in their homes and communities.