Mirroring Uganda’s passion to erase the destructive impact of the country’s conflict ridden years; Shelter Wakadogo (“for the little ones”) was established in 2005 to provide hope and opportunity to the future of Uganda – the little ones. The school was founded by Farah Williamson (Chief Executive Officer, The Social Investment Consultancy UAE), Andrea Charbonneau and Nilmin WIliamson with Peter Baltussen (Chief Executive Officer, Commercial Bank of Dubai) as an advisor to the management.

Good things come in small packages and the small yet ambitious team behind Shelter Wakadogo proved this true for the people of Gulu. The three founding members initiated a nursery school for 80 children between ages of 3 to 6 years. The dynamic trio raised USD 87,000 to launch the first school of its kind in the Acoyo village of Gulu. Shelter Wakadogo now has over 300 students and provides them with a nutritious school meal every day so that they can learn on full stomachs; along with free health care facility to treat common diseases like malaria.

The management of Shelter Wakadogo has focused on providing affordable early childhood and primary education and based on a community census, the fee for students was agreed on 25,000 Ugandan shillings per term (USD 9.98).

In order to expand focus on taking the developmental focus to the whole of community and attain sustainability of the project beyond donations, ValuStrat’s Pro-Bono Advisory is eagerly assisting the Shelter Wakadogo management in developing a strategy focusing on:

  • Community empowerment
  • Sustainable ecosystem
  • Human Resource Strategy
  • Operations and Accountability
  • Renewable Energy Strategy
  • Marketing Strategy