Highlighting Changemakers - Caroline Kabz

Brief introduction:

Caroline is a Ugandan by nationality, counsellor psychologist by profession, currently studying masters of Arts in Women, leadership and Governance in Africa at University of Nairobi. She is a self-driven person with a positive mind, a social entrepreneur, Children, youth, women and environmental activist. She has previously registered an excellent performance in all places she has worked across different fields being governance issues livelihood, HIV/AIDs, Gender and social justice, Sexual Reproductive Health, entrepreneurship and financial literacy and environmental conservation work experience. Caroline has worked in the community development sector for over six years. She has developed strategic plans, participated in the development of the East African Youth Policy, Review of the Uganda national Policy, adoption of the post 2015 agenda, Africa agenda 2063, Uganda National Youth Manifesto (NYM) 2016 and beyond. She has set up M&E systems for several projects in order to have a sustainable approach to community projects. She is the Western Coordinator for Girls not Brides Uganda, an alliance that is working to end child marriages. She has also been voted as a country Global Aid for Africa, (GAA) which aims at strengthening sustainable International Relations and Development Partnership that promote and support Africa Member states and Government's to achieve sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN agenda 2030 and Africa Unity 2063.

Girl Talk ambassadors during the girl talk camp 2018.

Why did you choose to become a community activist? 

From childhood I always had the passion to be involved in the community, to believe in the possibility of being a change maker in the world. I like turning challenges into opportunities, finding solutions using creative thinking. There must be a purpose to life, a reason to push yourself hard. Being part of a gobal community of change makers helps me believe it is possible to change the world, and the best place to start is where I am. I believe that there is no other way for me to lead my life than trying to impact my community through training, advocacy, information dissemination and social entrepreneurship training.

What kind of community work are you involved in? I work with Rural Children and Youth in Uganda on issues to do with education, gender equality, social justice, climate change and good governance.

Outreach to the rural schools of Isingiro Districts, breaking the stigma against menstruation

What inspires your work? The change I make everyday inspires me and gives me hope to continuously do more work for the community.

Are there some success stories that you can share from your work?

·         I have been able to contribute to the Gender and Climate Change National working framework.

·         I have trained 450 Girl Talk ambassadors’ in rural schools

·         I have managed to popularize the SDGs to young people in the community.

·         I have trained 600 change agents

·         I have trained 24 peer educators to scale down the information to grassroots

·         I introduced District budget Advocacy Networks in my operational Districts

·         I have planted over one million trees through Youth Go Green distribution strategy.

·         I have been given five awards for social change.

Training of Peer Educators for Rubirizi District for young people to reach out to fellow young people out of school using the Peer Educators approach.

Any key lessons that you’ve learnt throughout your community work? I have learnt that for  a dream to be fulfilled the vision bearer must be the leader.

What are the main challenges that you encounter?

Lack of information by citizens about policies set by governments.
All policies are written in English and yet the rural communities understand the local languages.
Lack of finances and funding

The poster shows my commitment to lobbying the government in investing in menstrual Health and Hygeine for adolescent girls.

How can other youth interested in being active in their communities start? They need to start from where they are; the starting point is acceptance and willingness to take on a challenge.

What do you think is the most important SDG and why? The most important SDG is education. When we educate people, they get informed and understand the challenges in their community. Information is power. Education will reduce poverty, boost economic growth and increase income. It increases a person's chances of having a healthy life, reduces maternal deaths, and combats diseases such as HIV and AIDS.

Community girl talk program which I carried out during holidays in Karangara village.

Any final remarks? As an SDG champion, we need to interpret the SGDs to the local languages, align them to our community for easy implementation.