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Our Mission

Supporting and Empowering students in schools to achieve their full potential through creating Equitable, and Inclusive school environment that nurtures healthy values that support collaboration, compassion, and hard work for a common good in the community.

Through its programs, Harness Lives Uganda (HLU) provides students with the support they need to succeed in schools and in life. The organization’s school social workers work with students, families and schools to provide individual counseling, school-based mentoring, and support for families. These services help students build resilience, confidence, and independence, and provide them with the tools they need to overcome life’s challenges.

At the same time, HLU is working to create an environment in schools that is inclusive and supportive of all students. This includes promoting values such as collaboration, compassion, and hard work, and working to ensure that every student had access to resources they need to succeed.

By supporting and empowering students in this way, HLU is working to creating a brighter future for children and young people in Uganda.

Our Vision

Our vision is A World Where Every Child Thrives.

At Harness Lives Uganda (HLU), we believe that every child deserves an opportunity to succeed in school and in life. We envision a world where every child is equipped with the tools and support they need to overcome life’s challenges and reach their full potential.

In this world, children and young people are surrounded by loving and caring adults who understand and support their needs. They have access to quality counseling; mentoring and other support services that help them build resilience, confidence, and independence. And they are surrounded by families who are equipped with the resources they need to provide a supportive home environment.

To make this vision a reality, we are dedicated to providing the highest quality services to children and young people that we serve. Our team of skilled and compassionate school social workers works tirelessly to make sure that every child in our care receives the support they need to succeed.

We believe that by working together, we can create a world where every child thrives. And we are committed to doing everything within our means to make this vision a reality. Join us on this journey to create a brighter future for children and young people in Uganda.

Organization Goals

Foster family-school Collaborations
Empower parents to be active supporters of their children’s education
Empower Students to open up when faced with challenges
Impact positively on the education goals of students
Positively impact school environment to support students, families and teachers achieve their goals.

About Us

Harness Lives Uganda is a School Based Social Work agency that provides direct and indirect services to students, their families, and school personnel to promote and support students’ academic success, emotional and social well-being.

Concerns, provide behavioral support, academic and classroom support, consultation with teachers, parents, and administration as well as provide individual and group counseling to students, teachers and families.

Through our school practices, we commit to creating an equitable and inclusive learning environment that empowers all students to achieve their full potential.

In our school engagements, we look forward to helping students develop important values that can lead to healthy identities, Collaboration and Compassion which in the end leads to the development of Social Emotional skills and Academic success.

We intend to nurture students into becoming responsible and contributing members of society who will become advocates and drivers of a positive social change.

More About Harness Lives

We prioritize the following key programs

What We Do

We provide psychosocial support to students, families and teachers. According to UNICEF, 2020, this helps to strengthen protective factors for the students, families and teachers, including their abilities to identify dangerous and risky situations.
We provide case management services to students. We are guided by Uganda’s existing framework to organize and address individual student’s (and their families) needs in an appropriate, systematic and timely manner, through direct support and/or referrals to resources.
We collaborate with teachers and educators to design interventions that support students with different learning needs.
We foster healthy relationships between students, families and teachers. We understand the value of relationship in fostering success, and that’s why we support building collaborative healthy working relationships between students with their peers, families and with teachers

Why We Do It

We know that students in schools face a number of Social, Emotional, and Academic challenges as they try to adjust to the school and social life. These challenges have a negative impact on the wellbeing of these students in schools and therefore if not handled, they can potentially hinder students from achieving their goals in life.
Students face different personal challenges that require confidentiality to handle, and since senior teachers (persons in schools who support in addressing challenges that children and young people face while at school) are involved in delivering lessons, students may have concerns with privacy and confidentiality when it comes to information to be shared with a teacher. This may prevent them from asking for the help they need from these senior teachers in schools.

How We Do It

Our social workers are placed in schools to offer continuous support to students, families and school staff. These social workers offer psychosocial support to our clients in schools who present with different challenges at home, school, and from the community environment. We work with school administrators in order to develop strategies that best support a learning environment which is both safe and welcoming for students, families and teachers.

Where We Work

Harness lives partner with schools to help students, families and teachers thrive.

We work in Ugandan schools both public and private offering services to both primary and Secondary school students.
As Social workers, we are professionals trained in counseling, and managing group and individual cases, and we work with individuals to enhance their problem-solving capacities, empower clients to work towards relationship building, help create a safe school environment, work with teachers and school administrators to design interventions that are inclusive and friendly and work to link the family and the community into school programs that enable the students to handle most of the challenges that they face at school and in different situations.
In schools, will help students with academic performance issues by working with professionals to design interventions to help learners with learning difficulties.
Our Social workers do problem assessments and listen to students' issues that affect their well-being which may stem from how they handle stress, transitional issues, and pressures from the school environment, family challenges, and other personal problems.
When these are handled well, this can enhance students' academic performance, improve student's behavioral conduct, increase student retention in schools, improve teacher-student relationships, facilitate school-family engagements, and create a safe school environment that will facilitate students' learning, and improve social success.