FORUM 4 KALONGO PARIS Humanitarian Respo Organization Background
Forum for Kalongo Parish Women Associations (FOKAPAWA) is a Local Non-Governmental Organization founded in 1998 with a purpose of contributing to elevating the conditions of women and youths who suffered from the effects of the war in Acholi sub-region with particular focus on Agago District. FOKAPAWA operates in 13 sub-counties and 3 Town Councils of Agago district. Since inception FOKAPAWA has worked with more than 250 groups with at least 60% women. The groups/associations areour entry points inmost interventions. FOKAPAWA is registered by the national NGO Board with registration number S 5914/3325. FOKAPAWA#s interventionstargets women and youth as their first beneficiaries in its programming and implementation.
Vision
Aneconomically empowered community of women and youths who can demand for their rights at community and household levels
Mission
To support women and youths to knowtheir rights and be able to work towards a better livelihood by getting involved in IGAsand peace building activities in Agago  Districts.
Values
# Equality
# Self Reliance
# Integrity
# Team spirit
# Accountability and Transparency
Specific objectives are;
1. Topromote equal justice and rights for all.
2. To promote better Agricultural practices and the culture of saving among the women andyouth for self sustainability.
3. To provide psychosocial support to post war survivors.
4. To mobilize the community to change their attitude and behaviors that perpetuates Gender Based Violence/Domestic violence.
5. To facilitate women and youth to be actively involved in Peace building activities.
6. To promote quality education
Thematic Areas
1) Education with focus on Girl child
To mobilize the community towards their rights to education especially the excluded persons, notably women and girl children, FOKAPAWA# focus is on addressing the immediate needs of girl children and women; and strengthening the capacity of the surrounding circles of influence across Agago district.
To achieve this we commit ourselves to;
# Increasing enrollment and retention rate in Primary schools with keen focus on girl child,
# Improving parents# participation in planning, implementation and monitoring of school programs,
# Improving quality of education services,
# And increasing adult knowledge especially women in reading and writing.
To strengthen our economic empowerment component, our education program focuses on; 1)Functioning Adult Literacy (FAL) so as to build the capacity of women/women group in record keeping and numeracy, 2) girl children for gender equity.

2) Peace building
To create a peaceful society, FOKAPAWA commits to;
# Strengthening the capacity of formal and informal structures to mitigate and resolve conflict so as to createa peaceful community,
# Inspiring community to crate and own peaceful initiatives of resolving conflicts in community,
# Reducing land conflict and,
# Reintegrating and rehabilitating Formerly Abducted Persons

3) Justice and Equality
Aware thatsustainable transformation can only take place when the poor and the excluded knows their rights and the process of attaining them, FOKAPAWA#s  focusis  on raising  awareness on rights, mitigation of land conflict, employing participatory approaches to mobilizing and building right consciousness among the excluded/ vulnerable in communities and groups we work with alongside duty bearers.
To achieve this we commit ourselves to;
# Deepening the level of mainstreaming response to women# rights in all ourwork,and championing the fore-frontingwomen issues/concerns within development context,
# Strengthening the capacity of duty bearers to account to right holders and for the right holders to demand from duty bearers so as to create socially accountablegovernance,
# And reduction of Gender Based Violence.
# Enhancing capacity of social structures (traditional and religious leaders) to perform to their mandates in mitigating land conflict in community.

4) Economic Empowerment Addressing       on needs ofthe poor and the vulnerable as a way To address the commonneeds of the poor and the excluded we focus on; 1)livelihood and food security and, 2)development of micro finance and micro enterprises. The two components are broken at intervention levels into; Production and marketing, Micro finance and micro enterprises, andinstitutionalization of community groups.
Here we are driven by desire to
# Increase household income,
# And promote sustainable agriculture.

a) Promotion of Production and marketing
To Promotion Production and marketing, or focus is on distribution of farm inputs, encouraging animal traction and best agronomic practices, agro forestry, establishment of demonstration and multiplication schemes as well as exchange learning visit bywomen groups/farmers alongside providing market information.

b) Promotion of Micro finance and micro enterprises
The focus is on Village Saving and Loan Association (VSLA) and Income Generating Activities (IGAs). The targetis women groups and or anygroup of the same interest that can voluntary form themselves into groups (VSLA groups), the groups are trained on starting and maintaining micro enterprises with loan capital coming from their VSLA savings.
c) Community institutionalization through group developments
We strive to transform the VSLA groups into self managing groups with governing principles of operation. We connect the transformed formal groups to financial institutions and related government departments to increase their capitalbase and promote sustainability.

5) Psychosocial support
To reduce trauma and help built a society of peaceful mind, FOKAPAWA commits to;
1. Building a strong voluntary Community Based/owned counseling bases in community,
2. Building a powerful network ofbothformal and informal structures capable of addressing trauma and conflict related issues,
3. And offering at convenience of survivors, counseling services.

6) Health
Here the focus is;
1. Reproductive health care,
2. And HIV prevention.

Mainstreaming/ Cross Cutting Issues
At all levels of implementation we take into consideration the following;
1. Gender,
2. Child protection,
3. Environment,
4. And HIV/AIDS
5. Disaster and emergency occurrence