CIYOTA: Progress and success

2005:

  • On 5 December 2005, several students living in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement founded COBURWAS International Youth Organisation to Transform Africa, or CIYOTA, to face the challenges in their community. COBURWAS stands for the nations represented in and around Kyangwali at that time: Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, and Sudan. In just one week, their ranks grew from 30 to 130 members.
  • On 20 December, CIYOTA launched a pilot holiday tutoring program that enabled refugee students to excel academically.
  • During the December school holiday, CIYOTA raised $400 through digging for farmers. With these funds, they bought textbooks for the tutoring program and exercise books for the most impoverished children.

2006:

  • On the 2006 Uganda Primary Leaving Examination (PLE), two students in the tutoring program performed the best in Kyangwali, scoring the first grade.
  • CIYOTA launched campaigns to sensitize the community about the importance of education.
  • CIYOTA established relationships with the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and other organizations and religious institutions in Kyangwali to involve the community in its activities.
  • OPM provided CIYOTA with land for a youth center and agricultural activities, including farming and goat rearing.

2007:

  • On the 2007 PLE, 52 students from the tutoring program achieved the first or second grade. Three CIYOTA members won community transformation scholarships from Educate! (www.ExperienceEducate.org) and were admitted to top-ranking Ugandan Universities, Makerere and Kyambogo.
  • CIYOTA worked with community members to erect a building of 80 iron sheets that, upon its completion, became the home of the CIYOTA Learning Center (CLC).

2008:

  • CIYOTA opened a student hostel in Hoima, a town 80 kilometers outside Kyangwali, where 33 students from the tutoring program could live while studying in Hoima’s secondary schools.
  • CIYOTA gave scholarships to three students after completing their O-level examinations.
  • One of the students was selected to attend Cornerstone Leadership Academy, an A-level school which admits 25 male students from Uganda and other East African countries each year.
  • A CIYOTA student leader was accepted to the inaugural class of African Leadership Academy (ALA) in South Africa (www.AfricanLeadershipAcademy.org). Out of thousands of applicants from across the world, ALA selected only 100 outstanding students it would empower to transform Africa.
  • CIYOTA hired a nursery teacher to care for 20 orphans at CLC.
  • CIYOTA started the Anti-violence Women’s Movement, a program to teach vocational skills and principles of business and community sustainability to females who had not gotten the opportunity to attend school.
  • CIYOTA partnered with Think Humanity (www.ThinkHumanity.org) to distribute over 10,000 mosquito nets to refugees to help fight malaria.

2009:

  • CIYOTA worked with People Weaver (www.PeopleWeaver.org) to provide small loans to 40 widows and orphans to enable them to become self sustainable.
  • CIYOTA opened a branch in Kyaka with a $300 empowerment grant enabling them to start a goat and bee keeping project.
  • CIYOTA opened a nursery and primary school catering primarily to orphans and abandoned children in Kyangwali. The first class had 40 pupils.
  • CIYOTA admitted an additional 42 students into the hostels in Hoima, bringing the number of students accessing education at the superior schools in the town up to 75.
  • Ten students were awarded CIYOTA scholarships to complete A-level.
  • One CIYOTA member was selected to attend Cornerstone Leadership Academy and another one admitted to African Leadership Academy with full scholarship.
  • A CIYOTA member was selected by the British Council to attend African Youth Summit as a Global Changemaker.
  • CIYOTA opened a branch in Rugashari with a $300 empowerment grant to start pig rearing. In November 2009, CIYOTA Rugashari bought a plot of land and planted 3,000 trees.

2010:

  • CIYOTA formed a partnership with Theatre Versus Oppression, which raised $18,000 to support the nursery and primary school and fund the construction of a three-classroom block.
  • CIYOTA opened three new branches: Bukinda in Uganda and Bunagana and Goma in Democratic Republic of Congo.
  • CIYOTA purchased 14 acres of land worth $15,000 in the outskirts of Hoima where CIYOTA International Leadership Academy will be built in the coming years.
  • CIYOTA partnered with African Leadership Academy students and British Council to organize the Hoima Entrepreneurial Challenge, a three-day event which brought together 60 students from different Ugandan schools.
  • CIYOTA received $1,500 from British Council to purchase sewing machines for Anti-violence Women’s Movement.
  • CIYOTA organized a football tournament to bring together football clubs throughout the Hoima district.
  • Three CIYOTA leaders from the Goma branch represented Congolese youth in African Leadership Youth Forum (ALYF) organized by Cornerstone Leadership Academy.
  • CIYOTA was selected by the Unreasonable Institute as one of the 25 most promising young social entreprises in the world.
  • Two CIYOTA members represented Ugandan Youth at a 4-H Youth Development Organisation conference in Tanzania. 
  • WIFIPE (an NGO based in Kenya) and CIYOTA partnered to launch WICI, a project to promote peace and reconciliation in Africa.
  • A CIYOTA member was selected as one of 60 young activists from 110 countries to attend Global Youth Summit in London.
  • CIYOTA brought together leaders from the Uganda and DRC branches for leadership and social entrepreneurship training.
  • CIYOTA was chosen to work with UNHCR to recognize World Volunteers’ Day.
  • Three CIYOTA students graduated from Makerere and Kyambogo Universities.

2011

  • CIYOTA opened up a head office in Kampala, Uganda.
  • Two members were awarded full scholarships to attend Cornerstone Leadership Academy.
  • Five CIYOTA leaders were invited to facilitate peace-building trainings for youth leaders in Migori, Kenya.
  •  Three CIYOTA members were invited to attend the 4-H Youth Development Organisation Conference in Tanzania; one was asked to act as a facilitator during the conference.
  • A member of CIYOTA was selected to attend World Economic Forum on Africa. He was the youngest delegate to attend the forum and facilitated discussions with world leaders talking on how CIYOTA education model can be scaled up and replicated into other communities.
  • CIYOTA was invited to participate in African 2.0 Leadership Symposium in Mombasa, Kenya.
  • CIYOTA obtained a certificate of registration to operate in Democratic Republic of Congo.