VPlusPlus Project Summary

This is a summary of a longer, more detailed report that you can read online here, or download from here.

Peer Mentors in their VPEP sponsored uniforms

GDPU

Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) reached new milestones over the year to end-April 2025, engaging 500 young disabled persons in business, financial, literacy, numeracy, vocational and life-skills training. GDPU also created a network of 12 peer mentors who connected with over 1,000 young persons with disability across Gulu and surrounding Districts. This network forms a foundation for much greater economic and social inclusion of our young disabled persons than before.

ETC of PWD

These milestones were achieved through the second year of the VPlus Plus project, funded by a grant of UGX 48,960,000 (approximately £10,500) from the small UK-registered Enhancing the Capacity of Persons with Disability (ETC of PWD) charity.

VPlusPlus and VPlus

VPlusPlus was a follow on from the two-year VPlus project for young disabled persons, jointly funded by UK Aid Direct and ETC, which ran from January 2020 to end-March 2023. VPlus trained 119 young disabled persons in seven vocational skill areas together with ‘Plus’ elements of literacy, numeracy, finance and business skills, cultural and community activity, and post-training follow-up support.

VPlus

The follow-up support continued through VPlusPlus, it was recognized that sustainable businesses and employment required more than a short course and a short follow-up period. This recognition was reinforced when 42 (82%) of the 51 attendees of the large reflection meeting held at the end of VPlus Plus reported that they were successfully self-employed, with a further 7 (14%) reporting sustainable employment. The revolving loan scheme played a role in these successes but faced many challenges which have been addressed in various ways.

Project Design

The design of VPlusPlus, especially the tailor-made training component, was determined through reflection meetings of VPlus beneficiaries, including smaller meetings held in more outlying areas. This included training in record keeping, marketing and business planning, literacy, liquid soap manufacturing, social and life skills, Safeguarding was central to VPlusPlus, safeguarding (e.g. preventing gender-based violence) and disability awareness sessions for the wider community. Safeguarding training, allowing, with the help of peer mentors, the tackling of 15 safeguarding issues during the year.

Reflection Meetings

Reflection meetings were a source of information on challenges and successes. Data collected at the large reflection meeting suggested that attendees had earned an average of UGX 295,000 in the last 3 months (ranging from UGX 20,000 to 3,500,000) and had managed to save UGX 41million (average of UGX 800,000 per attendee, ranging from UGX 3,000 to 17,800,000).

Peer Mentors

A major impact of the project has been the creation of a network of peer mentors, to widen access to opportunities and to develop information on challenges faced by isolated persons with disability. Twelve beneficiaries of VPlus project were carefully chosen and provided with relevant training such as in communication, safeguarding, conflict management and data collection. The mentors have:

delivered training
brought together NGOs, government officials and communities
provided on-the-job training in their localities
reduced isolation of young disabled people, worked with families on disability issues
been a reference point for GDPU and others across a wide geographical area.

Challenges

As would be expected, VPlus Plus has faced many challenges, discussed in this report. Those challenges include the limited available budget to meet the high levels of demand from young disabled persons for more social and economic opportunities to improve the quality of their lives.

Conclusion

VPlus Plus has developed effective ways of tackling issues faced by young disabled persons and has created the foundations for uniting communities and agencies in much more extensive work to address the huge scale of issues and demand. This work needs to continue.

If you would like to know more about the ETC of PWD charity that manages the Vplus plus programme please go to our Home page