Sustainable future for marginalized youth

Laurenz Hommel is organizing this fundraiser.

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SUMMARY
By supporting this project you enable the NGO "SINA" to create a sustainable financial income flow in order to break the dependency of donations.
SINA tackles the failing education system and resulting unemployment in Africa through Social Innovation Academies (SINAs). A 5 stage empowerment process enables the youth to turn their challenges into opportunities. It consists of personal and professional development in the area of social and environmental entrepreneurship. Furthermore, SINA is helping build up and accelerate the start-ups of the scholars. This way they become job creators instead of job seekers.
By building the eco-tourist site SINA Village, SINA is able to generate income. This way we break free of donations. Especially the time of COVID-19 showed that financial independence is important as donations are cut back endangering the education of many marginalized youth and refugees. Every penny invested will create long term financial stability for SINA. For further information read text below.

UGANDAS FUTURE LEADERS
In Uganda, marginalized youth and young refugees lack opportunities to create a self-sustainable and dignified life. One of the root causes is a failing educational system. Once in the devil's circle of poverty, marginalized youth and refugees are not able to access even basic education.

SINA is tackling this very problem by offering free business education through Social Innovation Academies (SINAs). SINAs give scholars a holistic development process incorporating personal as well as professional education. This way the scholars are empowered to become social and environmental entrepreneurs. They are enabled to take on their own future by turning their challenges into opportunities. So far, eight SINAs were set up in East Africa, namely in Uganda, Zimbabwe, D.R.Congo and Kenya.

THREE SUCCESS STORIES
Bottled houses - building houses of used plastic bottles to reduce waste in the environment and cut down on building costs in order to make housing more affordable.

Reform Africa - creating waterproof and hardcover school and shopping bags made of single-use plastic bags. For each sold bag one school bag is donated to children in need.

Gejja Women Foundation - educating the rural population on menstruation, that it is normal and not “evil”. Furthermore, they produce washable and affordable menstruation products so that girls can continue going to school.

THE CHALLENGE
SINA Mpigi is located in a rural area about 2h away from Kampala, the capital city. It provides free living and education for current scholars from D.R.Congo and Uganda running through a 3 to 12-month program.
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic situation, SINA Mpigi is facing serious financial difficulties – many of our donors have had to cut back on funding streams. The consequences are a cut back on scholar numbers and educational activities such as trips and boot camps. Further deteriorations in fundings are expected.
However, Uganda’s young people are essential to moving the country forward after the pandemic is over. This is why SINA acts on the motto “turning challenges into opportunities” and came up with a solution to create independent and sustainable financial income flow.

THE SOLUTION
The concept of SINA Village was already developed in 2016 in order to generate sustainable financial income flow. However, the project has never been finished. We are about to change that.
With a 9 person strong project team from Uganda, D.R.Congo and Germany we are fully dedicated to building a beautiful tourist site incorporating the values we stand for: creating positive social and environmental impact.

SINA Village will be an ECO-tourism site on the SINA Mpigi compound which will offer travellers an authentic experience within the community as well as the beautiful relaxing landscape of central Uganda. All profits will be reinvested into SINA Mpigi and the nearby environment and natural reserves.

We used the COVID-19 time to reconstruct the SINA Village according to the needs of our intended guests, meaning building new huts with ensuite bathrooms and a kitchen building to provide guests with authentic Ugandan food. Four huts are built from upcycled materials, namely plastic bottles. The remaining seven huts are built with interlocking bricks, which decreased the CO2 emissions as they don't need to be burned.
Now we are moving on to the interior and exterior design, gardening and proper marketing of the place. For designing and gardening, we want to use only upcycled and/or natural materials to decrease non-compostable waste. Furthermore, we have two very valued policies:

Use local suppliers whenever possible to strengthen the small rural town of Mpigi.
Plant two trees for every tree used in the process to give back more than we take.

However, due to the fact that funds have been withdrawn from the project due to COVID-19, we struggle to do the final touches as described above. This is why we are now asking for your support as an individual.

We know that with your help we can create a SINA Village that will ensure the financial stability of SINA Mpigi and therefore the future for many marginalized youth and refugees. Every penny invested will create long term financial stability for SINA Mpigi.

Examples of what your donations will be used for: