Friends Community Development Trust (Uganda) was created in 2016 to provide infrastructure in Uganda arising from a wider concern that had grown in Northampton Local Meeting (LM) of the Religious Society of Friends.
A Friend at Northampton Quaker Meeting with links to Quakers and Anglicans in his home area of Butta in Uganda had been raising money to teach practical skills such as carpentry and construction to young people in and around Butta. These additional skills could be combined with subsistence farming to generate a better income for themselves and their families. Northampton LM annually selects a cause to support and in 2013 they worked to generate funds to support the building of a workshop in Butta, including gaining funds from Quaker Peace and Social Witness, a central UK funding body.
As this project was nearing completion, another Friend at Northampton Local Meeting began to see that there was much more which could be done and began exploring possibilities for further support to the community in Uganda. After discussion it was felt that there was a need to develop opportunities for education and training for young people in the area. This led to a vision to establish a UK Quaker based charity to gather funding to support further projects. With the support of three other trustees, and of Northampton Local Meeting, Friends Community Development Trust (Uganda) was established.
It was an early decision that we should support projects being proposed by the Ugandan community, to be enacted by the community, and run by the community. We are supporters of their ideas, rather than being proposers of them. We fund buildings and infrastructure only, for projects which must be sustainable within the community to improve their conditions of life.
All projects supported originate in the community, and all work is carried out by those living in the community. When completed, the resources completed are owned and controlled by the community.
Currently our work is centred in Butta in the Manafwa district of Uganda but our hope is that with time we will be able to help a wider community.
In 2018 we became a UK Registered Charity (1177646) and a Quaker Recognised Body in Britain (BYM).