Youth Social Work Association (YSA) is a ugandan non-governmental Organization legally registered with Uganda National NGO board. The organization was formed in 2005 to promote the welfare of children and youth in Uganda. Since its establishment, YSA works with various international and national non-governmental Organizations, central and Local Governments. The vision of the organization is a soci
ety that protects and values children and youth and the mission of YSA is to provide capacity building, psycho-social and material support to young people individually and in groups. In a bid to realize its mandate, YSA uses a unique approach of TWIGA (a Swahili word for giraffe) that stands for Tolerant, Working in Partnerships, Innovative, Global and Accountable. This approach is incorporated in the day to day operations of YSA and also in interactions with all stakeholders. The approach was developed within the development cooperation work for the promotion of the children and the youth between the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social development and The German Development Agency - GTZ. The main objective of the approach is to activate the self-help potentials of, and to animate the youth to form groups and consequently contribute to their community development. This approach targets social workers, youth entrepreneurs, district youth officers, NGO staff and other stakeholders who are working with young people. It is a peer group approach that generates a multiplier effect through replicating best practices and lessons learnt to a larger number of youth. The approach has a strong emphasis on active participation of the beneficiaries in all development initiatives. To ensure this, interactive / animated pedagogical methods are used. The Modules used can be easily adapted to the various situations in which they are used. Thematically, the training modules used cover a wide range of important areas including: Participatory children and youth appraisals, Human rights, group dynamics, livelihoods, entrepreneurship skills development, health, peace building and creation of networks for children and youth promotion.
