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Partners & Supporters
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Partners & Supporters
Partners & Supporters
••• Partnership Matters
Our impact is strengthened by the people and institutions who walk with us.
Rural Smiles Foundation works across connected areas of health rights, digital rights, economic empowerment, social inclusion, civic space, renewable energy, and climate resilience. These challenges cannot be addressed by one organisation alone. They require trust, collaboration, shared learning, community leadership, and responsible investment.
Our partners and supporters contribute in different ways. Some provide funding that makes community programmes possible. Others offer technical expertise, training, tools, platforms, referrals, visibility, advocacy support, or institutional strengthening. Local partners help us remain grounded in community realities, while global and regional networks connect our work to wider learning and action.
We value every partnership that helps us serve rural women, youth, refugees, girls, widows, persons with disabilities, human rights defenders, community leaders, and underserved households with dignity, safety, inclusion, and accountability.
Partnership helps us move further, faster, and with stronger community trust.
It helps us reach more communities, strengthen local systems, improve programme quality, and respond to urgent and long-term needs.
It enables us to combine community knowledge with technical expertise, funding, advocacy, technology, and evidence.
It keeps our work accountable to both communities and the partners who trust us with support.
••• Selected Partners and Supporters
Institutions and networks supporting our mission.
Rural Smiles Foundation acknowledges the donors, technical collaborators, learning networks, and institutional partners that have supported our programmes, platforms, capacity strengthening, visibility, and community-led work.
Civic Space Support
CIVICUS
Supported Rural Smiles Foundation’s civic space work through the Crisis Response Fund under the Flexible Support Mechanism, contributing to the development and strengthening of SPACEUG as a civic space platform.
Digital Safety
Digital Defenders Partnership / Hivos
Supported the Threat Reporting and Monitoring Module of SPACEUG, strengthening secure civic space reporting, documentation, triage, monitoring, and referral pathways for at-risk civic actors.
AI and Innovation
NetHope
Supported responsible AI integration into SPACEUG’s threat monitoring work, helping Rural Smiles Foundation strengthen civic space analysis, risk pattern identification, and timely response.
Clean Energy and Health
URBIS Foundation
Supports SolarMCH, Rural Smiles Foundation’s solar energy and capacity-building initiative for rural maternity health centres in Kibaale District, Uganda.
Participatory Democracy
People Powered
Supports learning and collaboration around participatory democracy, civic participation, inclusive governance, and community-led approaches to public engagement.
Youth Climate Leadership
GAYO / Youth Climate Council Uganda
Rural Smiles Foundation serves as Western Regional Host for the Youth Climate Council Uganda, hosted by Green Africa Youth Organisation, supporting youth climate leadership and regional coordination.
Special Acknowledgement
Access Now
Rural Smiles Foundation acknowledges Access Now for its technical support, digital safety guidance, and continued contribution to strengthening the security and resilience of our civic technology work. Access Now has supported our efforts to improve the safety, reliability, and protection standards of SPACEUG, especially around secure reporting, platform review, and digital safety considerations for at-risk civic actors.
This support has helped us think more carefully about responsible technology, user safety, secure civic space documentation, and the protection of human rights defenders, journalists, civil society actors, and communities using digital tools in sensitive contexts.
••• Awards, Networks & Memberships
Recognition, learning networks, and memberships that strengthen our work.
Rural Smiles Foundation’s work is strengthened through awards, fellowships, learning communities, civic networks, climate platforms, and institutional memberships. These spaces help us learn, collaborate, share community realities, build partnerships, and connect local action to national, regional, and global conversations.
Awards & Recognition
Youth in Action Peace Award
Rural Smiles Foundation was recognised through the Youth in Action Peace Award, an award platform connected to youth leadership, peacebuilding, resilience, and inclusive community action. We acknowledge the role of the United Nations agencies and the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region in supporting and amplifying youth-led peace and resilience efforts across the region.
What this recognition means to us
It affirms our belief that rural youth, women, community leaders, and vulnerable groups can be central actors in building peace, dignity, inclusion, resilience, and local solutions that respond to community realities.
Learning & Leadership
Fellowships and capacity-building spaces
Our leadership and team continue to participate in learning spaces that strengthen our approach to participatory democracy, civic technology, digital safety, climate action, community organising, systems change, and locally led development.
Why these spaces matter
They help us improve programme design, strengthen accountability, build peer relationships, and bring tested ideas back to the communities we serve.
Networks & Memberships
We participate in networks that connect local action to wider movements.
Through national, regional, and global networks, Rural Smiles Foundation contributes to shared learning, advocacy, civic space resilience, youth leadership, digital rights, climate action, participatory democracy, women’s empowerment, and locally led development. These memberships help us stay connected, informed, and accountable to wider movements working for justice, inclusion, peace, and sustainable development.
CIVICUS
Supporting global civil society solidarity, civic space learning, and movement connection.
People Powered
Strengthening learning and collaboration on participatory democracy and civic engagement.
Catalyst Now
Connecting with social innovators and changemakers advancing locally led solutions.
OIDP
Supporting learning on participatory democracy, local governance, and inclusive public participation.
UNNGOF
Connecting with Uganda’s civil society sector for coordination, learning, and civic engagement.
KCSON
Strengthening civil society coordination, local advocacy, and community development collaboration in the Kitara region.
ACWW
Connecting with a global women’s network that advances rural women’s leadership, livelihoods, and wellbeing.
DENIVA
Supporting civil society collaboration, voluntary action, community development, and local strengthening.
Youth Democracy Cohort
Supporting youth participation, digital democracy, civic space, and democratic resilience.
NetHope Connected
Connecting technology, learning, and innovation support for social impact organisations.
YCC Uganda
Supporting youth climate leadership and regional coordination as Western Regional Host.
Interested in partnering with Rural Smiles Foundation?
We welcome partnerships with donors, networks, public institutions, civil society organisations, technical partners, learning communities, and individual supporters who share our commitment to dignity, rights, resilience, inclusion, and community-led development.