EduPower

Not only is the intellectual capital eroding in many areas, but also not being replaced. Students, especially girls and orphans are dropping out of school in increasing numbers due to lack of fees and end up settling for pettywork to help support their families. In addition, weakened economies are less and less able to support the educational infrastructure or continue operations, leaving many schools with few resources. Believing that Education is power and a key to success in life, EduPower is a LHF Education programme that seeks to harness optimism and potential through Education.

Youth ACTION

According to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, "Youth make up more than 40 per cent of the world's total unemployed.” Therefore, Youth ACTION is a LHF youth training and empowerment programme. The concept of Youth ACTION is based on the idea that for development to be sustainable, initiative must come from the grassroots level. It is thus the basic preposition of Youth ACTION that the youth sector can provide this initiative, combined with their inherent drive, imagination, creativity and openness to change. These characteristics make the youth the ideal catalyst for development in their local areas. Youth ACTION therefore, seeks to organize and empower them to take initiative for their development.

Break the Silence

The hard realities of HIV/AIDS transmission have forced people to re-evaluate customs, traditions, attitudes and practices governing their most intimate and private behaviour. Family relationships, the rights of women and children, the institution of marriage, and the role of the extended family are all affected and all must change to some extent if people are to survive. Contrary to the myth that sex education leads to promiscuity, experience documented in research studies indicates that it encourages responsible sexual behaviour. Thus, the challenge is to develop information on HIV/AIDS that would be targeted to young age groups, including education about basic life skills, values of society, and responsible citizenship. HIV/AIDS should no longer be seen as "just a disease" that can be fixed by appropriate medical interventions. It is a complex, multi-faceted development issue. If it continues to spread at its current pace, it could wipe out decades of progress. Therefore, Break the Silence is LHF HIV/AIDS prevention and control programme that integrates into a holistic response to combat the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS on development in Uganda, in order to ensure the welfare of the communities, as well as to safeguard viable economic interests in the country.

Infoquip

Based on the fact that information is a fundamental key to all actions, Infoquip is a LHF information, advocacy, research and communications initiative geared towards acquisition and dissemination of information so as to influence public policy.

ComServe

Experience has shown that top-down programs imposed on the local communities have not achieved wide acceptance by the very people they were supposed to help. These programs are usually not culture specific and sometimes have very little applicability to local conditions. Aside from this, even those programs that are eventually accepted are not as successful as they should have been. This is largely because the initiatives are not sustained after the initial phase of implementation. It has been proven in the past that without a solid foundation of local driven initiative even the most well designed program will most probably fail. It is thus the basic preposition of ComServe, a LHF community services programme, that the local communities can provide this initiative when they are organised and empowered to take action.

Friendships that Heal

In a country with numerous human development issues, another threat has been added; a dramatic increase in the number of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC). The presence of a growing number of OVC, unsupervised, poorly clothed and fed, uneducated, traumatized by the loss of their parents and uncertain about their futures, has a tremendously destabilizing effect on local communities, both now and in the future. Friendships that Heal is therefore a LHF OVC care services initiative that seeks to restore hope and healing through the power of friendships.