How an African green organization focusing on the youth operates in the uncertain Ugandan business environment

Youth Leading Environmental Change (YLEC) is a Ugandan based organisation whose program focus areas are Climate Change, Clean Energy, Food Security, Environmental Art and technology as well as Waste Management.

YLEC has two offices now, with the main office is in Kampala and a regional office in Soroti city (a district in Uganda). However, the inability to work from office sometimes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, brought about communication problems among other challenges.

YLEC has had to adapt to working remotely, the company has been observing the SOP’s that have been put in place by the government of Uganda. Some of their staff work from home and they have half of the staff in the Soroti office and half of the staff in Kampala. To prevent the spread of Covid-19, YLEC has placed sanitizers at both offices and wearing of masks is mandatory while following the social distancing protocols. Sometimes zoom meetings are held where all team members are able to meet virtually and deliberate on issues concerning the organization and ongoing projects. YLEC’s working hours are 8am-4pm, Monday to Friday to allowing for time for the employees to reach home in time before the curfew time (9pm in Uganda).

YLEC

Based on YLEC’s growth in the last 3 years, their team managed to share three of their key highlights with us on their quest to becoming the leading green organization in Africa.

Key Highlight 1: Social Impact Media Award (SIMA) in California, 2018-2019

YLEC has hosted and Co-hosted two SIMA events targeting youth in secondary schools, university, and people in community. This involved screening two films on two of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); SDG 7 and SDG 13 to create awareness and have a dialogue on role of renewable energy technologies on mitigation and adaptation on Climate Change.

SDG 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
SDG 13: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate related disasters

Key Highlight 2: Clean Environment Initiative Project (CEIP) 2017-2019

During the period of 2018 to 2019, YLEC in partnership with Seniors without Borders (SwB) and Joint Energy and Environment Projects (JEEP) implemented the Clean Environment Initiative Project in seven Secondary Schools in Soroti municipality (a district in Uganda). The project was meant to create awareness to influence schools and students’ behavioral change in clean cooking, proper waste management, and tree planting as a way to degrade environment degradation in Soroti District.

Key Highlight 3: Clean Environment Initiative Project (CEIP2) 2020 – 2023

CEIP 2 is the second phase for CEIP 1. The main objective of the project is to combat environmental degradation and promote sustainable development by fostering students' environmental consciousness in Soroti district. The project is implemented by YLEC Uganda alongside and (SwB Denmark).

Another key highlight to mention is that YLEC has joined the AmCham Uganda family as a resident member. “We hope to create partnerships and share in experiences and knowledge with fellow members and also increase our visibility both local and international in terms of networking, getting more partners on board and donors” said the YLEC team in a statement.

For more details contact YLEC VIA:

Website: https://ylecuganda.org/

Twitter: @YLEC_Youth

Facebook: YLECUganda

Instagram: YLEC-UGANDA

Linkedin: YLEC Uganda

For quick responses, contact their marketing and communications person via WhatsApp at: +256-785-809-236