About - HICDEF

About Us

Hope for the Innocent Child Development Foundation [HICDEF]is a Non-Governmental and nonprofit human development organization established in Rukungiri district, Uganda in 2012. HICDEFs’ existence was impelled by founders'’ peculiar testimonies and the aspiration to appreciate communities empowered and equipped with entrepreneurial and life skills to overcome their cognitive, Economic, nonphysical, and social-economic hindrances. HICDEF Continues to provide the resources needed for change and is a modest valuable transformation agent of development in the local communities as we solutions besides trust to the innocent vulnerable children and their families.

We arededicated to improving livelihoods in long-lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions. HICDEF serves more than 5 Sub counties of Rukungiri district in Uganda and its legal operations can cover the whole country (Uganda) resources permitting. As we evolve to meet the challenges of the future, we stand committed to the principles that have guided our organization in the past and our work continues to be grounded in, research and innovations, strengthened by partnerships, and focused on building the capacity of individuals, and communities to succeed.

Our Childcare program works to support at-risk children by increasing the stability of households in communities across Sub counties of Rukungiri District with the goal of reaching 1,000 households.

HICDEF brings together expertise, support, and resources in health, education, agriculture, nutrition, environment, economic development, civil society, gender, and research to address the full range of human development needs hence creating a unique mix of capabilities to address today's interrelated development challenges. Partner with colleagues across disciplines and geographies as you make your unique contribution to the world-class HICDEF team.

OUR VALUES

Innovation to meet the evolving needs of our beneficiaries, funders & partners.

Mutual respect for diversity and cultural differences.

Passion is driven by a personal commitment to make a positive difference.

Accountability for our work, measuring, reporting, & continually improving all that we do.

Commitment to excellence assured by the highest ethical, quality, operational performance, & Scientific Standards

Teamwork across disciplines & geographies, within the organization, and with our partners.

HICDEF APPROACH

Our approach focuses on individuals, groups, and networks that want or call to cooperate to achieve change at a local or community level. Adopting a community development approach means ensuring that the issues and priorities are identified and agreed upon by the communities themselves and that people are encouraged to work together towards a collective solution to a shared concern.

HICDEF’s development approach stands for the following crucial aspects of community development:

Informal Education: We involve the communities through direct participation in conducting sensitization and awareness sessions for the community members to come up with lasting solutions to the challenges that may arise in the community.

Collective Action: We promote uniting efforts, strengths, and determination; many people should act for their mutual benefit to protect the interests of community members who are not able to stand up for themselves.

Organized Community Engagement. This approach focuses on facilitating understanding, and exchange of information to build social capital and enhance social outcomes through a decision-making process. These further promote social transformation that involves social struggles that can be a means to generate collective power for the powerless people.
Self-help Groups for Community-driven Development: We focus on the contribution of women, men, and youth to the community’s development. This is an economic community development approach that moves an emphasis from the activity of the central government to local communities. This is also an opportunity for adult education and social psychology development. It also aims at the increase of activity of large groups of unemployed or semi-employed citizens, often with Lower Levels of Literacy (LLL). Through these groups, HICDEF finds a well-structured avenue to reach out to targeted beneficiaries in the specific community.
Community Capacity Building for Sustainable Development. HICDEF is apprehensive about helping communities obtain, strengthen, and maintain the ability to set and achieve their own development goals. This is aimed at achieving, in a balanced way, economic community development and environmental protection outcomes.
Nonviolent direct action. This kind of action is aimed at revealing an existing problem, highlighting an alternative, and demonstrating a possible solution to an existing social problem. Community development is focused on the development of developing communities to increase the level of economic and social welfare of the community members.
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a research approach that brings together the efforts of community members and researchers in the research of community life and problems. All the partners are expected to contribute their expertise, integrate, and share their knowledge to make the process of decision-making easier and more effective.

WE BELIEVE

A 360-degree perspective is required to address complex human development needs.

Sustainability comes from building the capacity of individuals, communities, and countries to address their needs.

The key to improving lives is in generating, sharing, and applying knowledge.

Partnering with governments, individuals, civil society organizations, the private sector, and communities leads to success.

OUR PROGRAMMING

HICDEF programming aims to:

Improve the socioeconomic status of households by increasing financial resources, improving socioeconomic skills, and facilitating market inclusion

Strengthen food security and nutrition by increasing household food production, improving food utilization, and referring vulnerable households to agricultural, nutritional, and health services.

Increase access to and use of protection and legal services by increasing awareness of child protection concerns, improving referral mechanisms to relevant services, and empowering families to use them.

Enhance the capacity of households to access, acquire, or provide critical services (such as health, education, or legal) by raising awareness and ownership of critical services, reinforcing civil society support and care for vulnerable children and their households, and developing referral systems, including partnerships with the private sector.

Assess individual household vulnerabilities and interests and design customized household development plans.

Build the capacity of local communities to respond to the needs of each household.

HICDEF’s community development programs help women, youth, and children create a sound gainful future for themselves and their households. Our work focuses on increasing productivity, service, and household incomes.