Sustainable Transitions and Outreach for Resilience in Marginalized Communities

forthcoming

The proposal Sustainable Transitions and Outreach for Resilience in Marginalized Communities (STORM C) aims to provide humanitarian aid response to the pressing socio-economic challenges in the African Great Lakes Region, namely in Uganda and Tanzania, marked by yearlong conflicts, mass displacement, extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure. The increased humanitarian crises at local level, including the ongoing violent conflicts in South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo combined with the climate change compelling effects on rural agricultural regions, demand quick, small scale, flexible, and localized youth-driven aid solutions. Here, STORM C offers a matching alternative by engaging 6 ESC HUMAID teams of 15 volunteers each in a series of camp activities empowering those most needed in Kampala Greater region, Uganda and Gongo region, Tanzania. A special emphasis has been placed on opening space for 30% young people with fewer opportunities joining the volunteering teams. The project takes over 24 months and shall stretch the outreach work in both countries over a period of six months where three volunteering teams per host country will consecutively join local support activities ranging from helping in the construction of shelters, renovating school and training facilities, digging for piping, providing health and sanitation workshops in remote rural villages as well as engaging children and adolescents in non-formal education and gamified learning experiences. The STORM C consortium welcomes two East European partners, the Infinite Opportunities Association from Bulgaria and Mondo MTU from Estonia side by side with two African Great Lakes Region entities, Uganda Youth Skills Training Organization and Save Africa's Nature in Tanzania. The consortium has track record in EU-AU cooperation activities within the Erasmus + Capacity Building and Virtual Youth Exchanges strands, as well as in European Solidarity Corps initiatives.