URF 2010: International Youth Camp & Young Professionals 4 Community Development Conference

“To inspire active engagement, the conference is an action-driven event. Each participant must commit to take concrete action on an issue they are passionate about.”
When: January, Friday 8 –  Sunday 10, 2010  {  Online Registration }
Where: Hope Integrated Academy, 35km Masaka-Mbarara Road, Masaka.

Purpose
URF seeks to inspire youths and young professionals to engage in social change at the grass-roots level instead of waiting for the government to solve our problems. Our goal is to bring together over 300 secondary school youths, college and university students, and young professionals to engage in constructive action-oriented dialogue about critical challenges facing Uganda and Africa in general – focusing especially on issues of education, community development, and career development and job opportunities. We have invited several prominent government leaders with interest in community development to brainstorm with young professionals about strategies to effectively address challenges facing our communities.

We can’t wait for outsiders; we have to step up. It is we, the African children who have the potential to unleash Africa’s potential, as President Obama reminded us. Everyone has to do something within their means to lift up the lives of those we have left behind. It would be a shame if we, both in Africa and in the West, who have been successful, to simply focus on our own advancement in education and economic progress without thinking of our brothers and sisters struggling to get out of poverty in the trenches of our home villages. I believe we have the potential; we just need the will and the passion to do it. The future of Africa will be determined by the efforts we make today to address these critical challenges of our motherland. It’s our responsibility to fix Africa. If we don’t, who will? Commit to doing something starting today!

URF 2010: My Commitment to Action
To inspire active engagement, the conference is an action-driven event. Each participant must commit to take concrete action on an issue they are passionate about. It could be a project within URF or something totaly different.

The goal is to commit to doing something that benefits someone else in tangible ways. You may also make a commitment as a group of up to five members. Commitment to action pledge may include ideas such as:
– sponsoring an orphan child for a year
– offering business training to youth and rural farmers in your community
– teach adult literacy classes to local women
– research funding sources for URF projects
– organize a fundraising event to support URF projects
– as a group to build a house for a child-headed family
– collect used textbooks for a village school without a library, – collect shoes or scholastic materials for an orphanage
– volunteer at URF or any other NGO for a month during holidays or on weekends, – start a URF Chapter at your university to engage other students, etc.

Career/Professional Development & Social Responsibility
This session will explore issues associated with:
– the case for higher education in Uganda and what possibilities are there for poor promising students to afford it.
– navigating options and decisions about advanced degrees or professional training. Why it may or may not be worth your resources? 
– ethical practices in the market place. Is is possible to climb the corporate or political ladder and still be ethical?
– the nature and benefits of professional associations
– personal advancement and social responsibility (including at the corporate level). How you as a socially conscience professional influence your company to do some good in the community.

Schedule of Events
All participants report on Friday. Youth camp closes on Saturday afternoon and the young professionals gathering continues to Sunday afternoon. Detailed scheduled will be coming soon.
-Thursday 5:00pm – Saturday 4:00pm: Youth Camp (Secondary school youths)
-Saturday 2:00 – 4:00pm: Main speaker and round-table dialogue with several government officials on education and community development issues.
-Saturday 4:00pm – Sunday 3:00pm: Young Professionals Conference.

Format: General plenary sessions with panels and breakout sessions for small group discussion. Weekend will include campfire on Friday and Saturday nights featuring music, reflections, story telling, and games.

Logistics:This is a camping-style event. Sleeping is outdoors in tents and school classrooms; so please bring personal gear appropriate for such conditions. Bring some working cloths as we will have a community service project and also do some help in the kitchen. To foster team work, attendees are expected to participate in meal preparation, especially males. 

Contribution Fee: Young professionals: 20,000 UGX. University students: 10,000 UGX. We request participants to contribute this amount to assist with logistics like meals. URF is sponsoring the event but being a small organization, it doesn’t have the resources to fund the entire bill. Thanks for your help. NOTE: If you can not afford to pay this amount, please let us know. We don’t want this to be a burden and a deterrence to people who are passionate about social change but for some reason don’t have this much.  For those travelling from Kampala, budget to spend at least 20,000 in transport to and from Masaka. We will also look into common transportation which may reduce the cost but we will communicate these arrangements later.

Registration
Click Registration Form to register online. 300 open spots; please register before January 02, 2010.
Email urfkampala@ugandaruralfund.org or call: Francis at +256-782-873478 or Harriet at +256-772-640552. with questions.

Conference Schedule (Draft -subject to change)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 07, 2010 – YOUTH CAMP (Secondary Students)

Time	Activity
5:00 – 6:00pm	Reporting and dinner preps
6:00 – 7:00pm	Dinner
7:00 – 8:00pm	Camp Briefing/Introductions/Games
8:00 – 10:00pm	Movie/Reflections on movie
10:00 – 11:30pm	Campfire: Reflection on 2009 School year. How did I perform; how can I improve grades for this year; how can I get more involved in leadership and extra-cultural activities;-          Make personal commitment for 2010
12:00am	Retire – Grand silence

 FRIDAY, JANUARY 08, 2010 – YOUTH CAMP (Secondary Students)

Time	Activity
6:00 – 7:00am	Rise/Breakfast Prep
7:00 – 8:00am	Breakfast
8:00 – 9:30am	Session 1: Self-Empowerment –What can you do to support yourself –small project ideas students can do to earn money for school needs.
9:30 – 10:00am	Break
10:00 – 11:30am	Session 2: Goal Setting and Life Skills
11:30 – 12:00am	Break
12:00 – 1:30am	Art and Crafts Workshop: painting, jewelry, etc.
1:30 – 2:30pm	LUNCH
2:30 – 3:00pm	Free Time/Rest – May continue your art project if you like.
3:00 – 4:30pm	Practice for Saturday performances
4:30 – 5:00pm	Games/Sports

 FRIDAY, JANUARY 08, 2010 – Young Professionals Conference – BEGINS

Time	Activity
3:00 – 5:00pm	Check in – mix  in and interact with kids/games/sports
5:00 – 6:30pm	Introductions, Ice breakers, housekeeping –  with camp kids
6:30 – 7:30pm	DINNER
7:30 – 8:30pm	Session 1: Introducing Uganda Rural Fund
8:30 – 10:00pm	Session 1: Volunteerism and Motivations for Giving Back – facilitated by students from Univ of Minnesota, College of St. Benedicts, St. John’s University – What inspires people to get involved in social; – How do you identity a cause and evaluate the need – How do you plan a project, fundraise, implement, partner, etc
10:00 – 12:00	Campfire- Personal Reflection: Why I am Here? Why are we here? Sharing motivations, visions, goals, or involvement in social change. Music and fun.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 09, 2010 – Young Professionals Conference

Time	Activity
6:00 – 7:00am	Rise/Breakfast prep
7:00 – 8:00am	Breakfast
8:00 – 9:30am	Session 1: Where Things Stand : The World We Live In. What are pressing challenges facing our communities? On Education, Poverty, Health Care?-What’s our place in this world? -What moral duty do we have to make this world a better place for all humanity starting with our families and communities? -What skills, experiences, networks do we have and how are we using them for the common of humanity -What can we, as young professionals, do address the disparity in our education system to save big dreams being tarnished in our villages because these bright kids don’t have resources?
9:30 – 1:45am	Break
9:45 – 11:30am	Session 2: Youth Mentorship: One-on-one mentorship – pairing a youth with a young professional. Listening and putting a face to poverty and education disparities in our country? Put yourself in the shoes of this kid you encountering? If that was your life story, where would you be today? How can we change the status quo
11:30 – 1:00pm	Community Service Project (Youth and Young Professionals)
1:00 – 2:00pm	Wash up and LUNCH
2:00 – 2:30pm	Introductions – Attendees and Guests (Gov’t and Civic Leaders)
2:30 – 3:00pm	Guest Speaker:  maybe VP??
3:00 – 5:00pm	Roundtable Discussion with Gov’t Officials and Educational Leaders-Present Issues from last night’s discussion -What strategies do our leaders have in place to address this challenges -How can young professional be engaged and commit to building our communities and Uganda or Africa in generalPresent 2 new attendees group projects to officials for suggestions: URF Book Bank:Idea –collect used textbooks, pamphlets, class notes, & past papers from university and secondary students in urban and other top schools to distribute them to students in rural schools. Many pple have these resources which are wasted URF Grassroots Educators: Idea –recruit university and A’level vacation students to volunteer in small teams to run tutoring workshops during weekend and holidays in underperforming schools. I think change has start from within not always to wait for foreign volunteer. We have to rise up and support our own!
5:00 – 5:30pm	Networking Break
5:00pm	Send off youth – End of Youth Camp for high school students.
5:30 – 7:00pm	Session 3: Reflection on Roundtable discussion with guests.-          Plan of action for following up with guests’ promises
7:00 – 8:00pm	DINNER
8:00 – 9:30Pm	Movie and Discussion
9:30 – 10:00pm	Break
10:00 – 12:00pm	Campfire – Personal reflections about the conference, stories, testimonies, music, etc.  What have I learned?
12:00am	Retire – Grand Silence

SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2010 – Young Professionals Conference

Time	Activity
6:00 – 7:00am	Rise/breakfast prep
7:00 – 8:00am	Breakfast
8:00 – 10:00am	Session 1: Responsible & Ethical Leadership. Professional and career devt, why higher education and how to fund it, unemployment and skill diversification, etc
10:00 – 10:30am	Break
10:30 – 12:00pm	Session 2: Commitment 2 Action: Formally announcing commitments, partnering, strategic planning, assessment, etc
12:00 – 12:30pm	Break
12:30 – 1:30pm	Session 3: What’s the Way Forward-          Planning URF Fundraiser for March 2010. Goal: Purchase of Tools and equipment for Vocational Training. What I can I contribute to the planning? Identifying businesses and schools that may donate equipment, etc.
1:30pm – 2:30pm	LUNCH
2:30 – onward	Conference closing and Departure