Soroti, Teso region, Uganda · Since 2001
Women leading peace in Teso
Teso Women Peace Activists (TEWPA) is a women-led organisation taking the lead to advance peace, resolve conflict, build tolerance and justice in the Teso region.
- Founded
- 2001 by Cecilia Engole
- Based in
- Soroti City, Uganda
- Works in
- Teso and Karamoja regions
- Focus
- Peace, justice and women’s rights
- 246+Alternative Dispute Resolution Activists trained
- 50+Land mediation clinics held
- 325Women Peace Committees trained
- 8,631+People reached on women’s land rights in one year
Figures published by the Women’s International Peace Centre, March 2021.
About TEWPA
Responding to women’s experiences of conflict
TEWPA was formed in 2001 by Cecilia Engole following her participation in the Isis-WICCE Institute, to respond to the challenges that women and girls face during and after conflicts.
TEWPA designs peace building and conflict resolution projects and programmes that are issue based, and organises focused peace building training for trainers (TOTs) in communities, for sustainability and as an effort to create lasting peace.
Advancing peace, resolving conflict, building tolerance and justice in the Teso region.
A women-led organisation working with women and men from different ethnic, tribal and political groups.
How we work
- Peace committees and animators
Established in community structures and continuously trained in human rights and peace building processes to facilitate interventions in their villages.
- Dialogues, debates and barazas
Organised with duty bearers and beneficiary communities to create awareness on women’s rights and other issues.
- Synergy meetings
Women are organised in consortiums as interest groups for successful advocacy on identified issues of women’s concern.
- Collective action across groups
TEWPA works with women and men from different ethnic, tribal and political groups to influence decision makers together.
Our Focus
Four areas, one goal: lasting peace
TEWPA’s focus is peacebuilding, conflict transformation, democratization and human rights.
Peacebuilding
Peace committees and animators in community structures, continuously trained to lead peace building in their villages.
Conflict transformation
Alternative Dispute Resolution Activists, women and men, trained to mediate land disputes in Teso.
Democratization
Dialogues, debates and barazas with duty bearers and beneficiary communities.
Human rights
Awareness on women’s rights and land rights, so community members know their rights and responsibilities.
Impact
What communities have achieved with TEWPA
- 246+Alternative Dispute Resolution Activists (ADRAs), women and men, trained to mediate land disputes in Teso.
- 50+mediation clinics conducted.
- 40+land cases successfully resolved.
- 325Women Peace Committees trained in peacebuilding processes and human rights in the Teso and Karamoja regions.
- 1,967+community members who experienced conflicts reached by the committees, and now aware of their rights and responsibilities.
- 159adolescent mothers supported with life skills to sustain themselves.
- 8,631+community members in the Teso region reached in one year with awareness on women’s land rights.
Community members have taken up the responsibility to educate others in their villages. Communities understand these actions as means that make them peaceful, and therefore important to sustain.
Figures as published by the Women’s International Peace Centre in March 2021.
Programmes
Our work in the community
Land dispute mediation
Alternative Dispute Resolution Activists, women and men, mediate land disputes in Teso through mediation clinics.
Women Peace Committees
Committees in the Teso and Karamoja regions trained in peacebuilding processes and human rights, who then reach and educate other community members.
Life skills for adolescent mothers
Making reusable sanitary wear, making liquid soap and other entrepreneurship skills. The young mothers were also sensitized to join family planning.
Women’s land rights awareness
Community awareness on women’s land rights across the Teso region, reaching thousands of community members in a single year.
Support for women living with HIV & AIDS
Psycho-social and economic support for women living with HIV & AIDS, targeting expectant mothers and the youth, with a $20,000 grant from the African Women’s Development Fund.
Transitional justice and election research
Co-hosting community dialogues on transitional justice in Soroti and partnering on research into election-related conflict and violence, with the Women’s International Peace Centre.
Partners
Stronger together
- Women’s International Peace CentreFormerly Isis-WICCE, where TEWPA’s founder trained. Partner in dialogues and research.
- African Women’s Development FundGrant for psycho-social and economic support to women living with HIV & AIDS.
Work with TEWPA
Partners, researchers and well-wishers who share the goal of lasting peace in Teso can reach the team in Soroti by email.
Contact
Visit or reach us in Soroti
Office
Plot 13, Emokori Road, Kichinjaji Ward
P.O. Box 558, Soroti City, Uganda
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