The Trust’s support for its beneficiaries is almost entirely provided by volunteers, mostly from the community in Gulu, and seeks to provide a sense of family and of safety. 

The support we give is often monetary, but may also or instead involve counselling and guidance, practical advice and support to families, crisis interventions of many kinds, and business advice and planning. Grants are given for primary and secondary education; for medical care, including on occasion traditional healing and reconciliation rituals; for legal assistance; and to start small businesses.

Direct Cash Giving

Over the last 10 years there has been a great expansion of programmes that give cash directly to individuals and families in poverty -“direct giving” – rather than indirect support through services such as health, education, or sanitation. The assumption behind direct giving is that people themselves are the best judge of what they need.

Our approach is based on the same assumption. We believe that each individual situation requires a different approach; and that if money is needed, the people who need it know best what it should be spent on. Our small scale and grassroots background means that almost all of our expenditure, aside from a stipend to our administrator and some money handling fees, goes directly to people for them to spend themselves.

You can read more about the research behind direct cash transfers at the links below:
https://www.givedirectly.org/research-on-cash-transfers/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-39038402
https://www.mhinnovation.net/innovations/impact-evaluation-unconditional-cash-transfers