About Uganda WASH Promotion Initiative (UWAPI)
The Uganda WASH Promotion Initiative (UWAPI) is an indigenous, not-for-profit organization which was founded by a group of distinguished public health, communications and social marketing professionals who are passionate about water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues.
A subsidiary of HAI Agency Uganda Limited, which is a communications and media management group, UWAPI is guided by a nine-member Board of Directors, which offers guidance to the organization in its effort to inform and educate Ugandans so as to empower them to take an active role in improving their health and hygiene.
In founding UWAPI, we sought to fulfil our goal of being the creating an organization that is not driven by the quest for profit, which would free it to offer its much-needed sensitization services across Uganda and the East African region.
UWAPI’s mission is, ultimately, to become a viable, self-sustaining organization that generates its own resources from its activities in order to continue to achieve the vision that it has for the promotion of water, sanitation and hygiene matters in Africa.
UWAPI VISION
The Uganda WASH Promotion Initiative seeks to:
- Create a customer-driven approach to WASH Promotion through innovative marketing, information-circulation and communication on social platforms.
- Strengthen private sector service delivery through promotion and marketing.
- Create impact through partnerships with Civil Society Organization’s, donors, private and public sector stakeholders.
UWAPI work contributes towards the improvement of social services and conditions that positively influence the social development of men, women and children in Uganda and the entire East African region. We are guided by principles that emphasize high quality services, transparency, accountability and evidence based programming. Our expertise can be summarized as follows:
Publication
The WASH Journal is a sector-specific publication that seeks to use every-day stories on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to educate people about the big picture issues such as reducing the spread of water-borne diseases, solid waste disposal and management, community mobilization to promote safe hygiene , promoting WASH initiatives among young people in schools and empowering of ordinary people from all walks of life – including refugees displaced from their homes by war and political instability – to take an active role in securing their health through WASH activities.
The publication seeks to provide an understanding of, and pay special attention to, sector innovations while critically reviewing local Government and other stakeholders to see to it that they uphold their respective roles and responsibilities.
The WASH Journal is a quarterly publication with the following specific objectives.
- To educate people of all walks of life, using ordinary, commonplace stories that they are familiar with, about big picture WASH issues.
- To highlight partner’s contributions in the WASH sector.
- To document remarkable milestones in the support of humanity to the donors in order to rally more support for sustaining the sector gains.
- To bridge the information gap among stakeholders, the general public and the donor community.
Online platform
The Wash Journal Online is the website edition of the Wash Journal publication. The website reflects the content in the print edition but also provides regular daily updates all-year round about developments in the WASH sector in Uganda and beyond.
WASH social marketing and advocacy programme
This enterprise makes use of the Total Market Approach, combined with evidence-based research, to spearhead successful social marketing for WASH programmes and services. This activity is part of a steadfast programme in the WASH Promotion Initiative to increase access to information online through marketing and advocacy campaigns. The Uganda WASH Promotion Imitative strives to use various platforms to drive the campaign and promotion on personal hygiene.
Development & Production of WASH Communication/ Behavior Change Communication
UWAPI has extensive experience in developing materials and develop an effective Behavior Change Communication strategy for this initiative, we rely on a customer-driven WASH marketing approach. These communication materials include posters, flip charts, leaflets/flyers, discussion guides, toolkits, job aids and comic books. With an in-house Design Unit, UWAPI produces materials for health workers, leaders, VHTs and other community based volunteers and clients who seek services. All materials undergo a process of concept development, review, design and pre-testing before they are produced and disseminated in the appropriate local languages.
Media Programme
UWAPI has vast experience in Media programme development including scripting development, Radio and TV commercial advert production, broadcasting and monitoring of different radio campaign, radio spots and interactive talk shows development. UWAPI also support in media immersion, Documentation, Editing and media booking.
THE KEY MANAGEMENT TEAM
| NAME | POSITION |
| Charles Opolot | Project Coordinator |
| Ms. Prisca Imalingat | Accountant |
| Benon Oluka | Head of Communication and Partnerships |
| Mr. Maganda Robert | Head of programs and Administration |
A Brief About HAI Agency
HAI Agency Uganda Limited is the parent organization for the Uganda WASH Promotion Initiative. HAI Agency is an integrated publishing house, public relations and communication agency that has gained key expertise in information dissemination, research, process documentation, monitoring and evaluation, event management and experiential marketing.
Over the last 10 years, HAI Agency has grown into a proficient, creative local and regional company. Its approach to communication centers on identifying ways to grow opportunities for its clients in various sectors, and them helping them to meet their documentation and communication objectives and subsequently achieve positive business outcomes.
HAI Agency has received several accolades and awards from its various partners for the outstanding that it has done in process documentation and Events Management. These include an award from Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment for profiling the National Hand Washing Initiative, ensuring excellent event management and documentation, as well as coordinating and managing the National Celebrations for the Global Hand Washing Day, which was attended by both His Excellency the President and Vice president of the Republic of Uganda.
HAI Agency has also played a pivotal role in the initiation and management of the Uganda WASH Media Awards for the last three years, including working with SNV Uganda to manage the event as well as undertake a lead role in the documentation process.
