January recap and plans for 2025

We hope you had a restful break and started the new year with renewed energy and optimism.

Did your first month linger or fly by?

At 4040, the “72 days” of January enabled us to reflect on our work and plan for 2025.

We are excited to share some of what we have in store for you, alongside highlights from our January activities.

Let’s get into it.

The holiday programme for teens at the Angaza Resource Centre (ARC)

From January 13th to 29th, 2025, we held our first holiday programme of the year at the ARC. Over two and a half weeks, 30 teenagers participated in ICT, literacy, and life skills training, including financial literacy, mental wellness, communication, and social etiquette.

This session also marked one year of holiday programmes at the centre, so of course we cut a cake!

The ARC welcomed back Ronald Twikirize, the Founder of the Galui Foundation, for another round of chess mastery. His work using chess to open minds and create opportunities in underserved communities is truly inspiring.

Seeing the original group strategise like pros and the new learners make their first moves was a joy. The Foundation is truly grateful to Ronald for sharing his invaluable skills and time with the youngsters.

The programme has advanced the skills of the youngsters in the aforementioned aspects and also shaped their dreams in life. For instance, Juma (16) says the programme has built his confidence and he will contest for the position of Head Boy at Semei Kakungulu Memorial Secondary School this year; Bint (18) is happy the ICT skills she is amassing will bring her life of working as a receptionist during her Senior Six vacation to life; while Jerry (13) hopes to become a chess champion one day.

These dreams inspire us to do more and we appreciate you supporting their realisation.

Throughout the year, the ARC will continue hosting teens for the holiday programme; hold DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) Day and read-aloud sessions; organise teacher training; embark on the process of launching a mobile library; organise a breakfast between the children and our community of supporters, facilitate meetings between partners and the community alongside the routine ICT, literacy and life skills training for the children that use the Centre daily.

Angaza Outreach Programme

Our team has been busy curating fun and engaging activities to complement the activities of the Angaza toolkit. This is in preparation for the first term of the year. Our sessions will commence on 11th March. The focus of this term will be on delivering practical, hands-on learning experiences to empower learners with real-world skills.

This year, activities under the programme will include; its evaluation to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, impact and emerging issues which will consequently inform its implementation, moving forward; recruitment and training of facilitators; sessions with children in partner schools; and we will organise an Angaza Day for the children to showcase what they have learnt throughout the year.

Volunteer programme

We are in the process of recruiting this year’s cohort of volunteers who will serve under different departments at 4040. The application window closed and the review is ongoing.

Between February and March, interviews for shortlisted candidates will be conducted; and onboarding and training sessions will be organised to prepare the volunteers to execute their duties.

Throughout 2025, we intend to organise various capacity-building sessions in-house and by partnering with like-minded institutions to further support our volunteers’ professional and career development.

An event to celebrate International Volunteer Day will be organised to recognise the contribution of volunteers in Uganda.

It will be a space to enable them to share their experiences and stories with other young people.

Will you be our Valentine, again?

This Valentine’s, you can honour someone you admire, whether they inspire you or make your heart skip a beat by donating to 4040. Let us know what your message is to them and we will deliver it. Check out this link for details.

This year, we will organise events and campaigns including #4040Night, the 4040 Experience dinner, Thankful Thursdays and the Little by Little Campaign. We look forward to your presence and participation as we continue to celebrate the gift of community.

Merchandise

This back-to-school season, give a chance to a child in your life to have the cutest backpack in class.

4040 kiddies’ backpacks come in different colours and designs.

Call us on 0776 840407 / 0757 140407 and we will deliver.

A call for partners

We would like to partner with you as we work to improve the lives of children in underserved communities. Our partners make a monthly contribution of as low as Ugx 10,000 monthly.

Donations can also be quarterly, and annually or a one-off donation to 4040 projects such as the Angaza Outreach Programme, Resource Centre, and book donations, among others. 

If your company or business has CSR grants that we can benefit from, please reach out. 

 4040 provides comprehensive accountability and updates on the causes you donate to. 

 Interested? Reach out to us via 

0776 840407 / 0757 140407 or sign up here.

We thank you for your support last year and look forward to doing 2025 with you! The trial month is over, let’s get into the year, for real this time.