Empowering minds; Transforming communities
Executive Director
MEST Development Initiatives Ltd
MEST Development Initiatives Ltd is a registered non-profit organization (Reg. No. 80020003835161) established on 28 September 2022 to promote community development and improve livelihoods across Uganda.
Our name represents what we stand for:
We work for, by, and with communities, ensuring local ownership and active participation, using the household as our entry point. We identify and support Community Resource Persons, including Village Health Teams (VHTs) and Expert Clients, with clearly defined roles in service delivery and peer to peer psycho-social support. We facilitate community dialogues, barazas, and debates to promote civic engagement, transparency, and accountability.
We conduct mini and rapid surveys and utilize tools like community scorecards to assess service delivery and drive evidence-based advocacy. Media engagement is an integral part of our strategy, including tours and fact-finding missions to raise awareness and document community realities. We foster collaboration with local and national government stakeholders through structured engagements at community, sub-county, district, and national levels to influence policy and service delivery.
We support economic resilience through community saving models such as Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) and Co-save groups, enhancing financial literacy and entrepreneurship. We promote agriculture as a core strategy supporting communities to enhance food security, generate income and build sustainable livelihoods through training, access to resources and market linkages. We work with communities to address climate change through locally led adaptation and mitigation efforts including climate smart agriculture sustainable natural resource management, environmental education, tree planting, building community resilience and supporting livelihoods.
We implement treatment literacy programs to increase knowledge on disease management, adherence, and health rights, particularly in underserved populations affected by health threatening Diseases such as HIV, TB, Malaria, Hepatitis B, Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, hypertension and cancer and other emerging epidemics. We also implement sustainable Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Nutrition, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes in rural communities, schools and health care facilities to improve long term access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene thereby reducing disease, promoting healthy behaviours and ensuring clean, supportive environments for learning, healing and daily life. MEST initiatives supports humanitarian efforts such as vaccination campaigns, maternal and child health services, treatment of acute malnutrition, emergency sanitation infrastructure, hygiene kits and public health education.
Empowering minds; Transforming communities
Breaking stigma around menstruation
