Who We Are
Our vision is a future where rural communities LIVING a problem LEAD the solution.
Our work aims to give local leaders like Kondwani the skills, tools and network they need to solve the challenges in their community.
Our Story
Joseph Lukwago was born in a rural village in Uganda and his family led a community-based organisation. With access to education opportunities, he graduated as a software developer and later became the private secretary in the government of Uganda, heading the ICT department in the office of the Vice President.
Joseph met Jack Farren in the UK in 2019. Their shared passion for leveraging technology to create social impact led them to spend over three months in Joseph’s home village to write the first chapter of Rural Inclusion.
Inclusion Ambassadors
Our Inclusion Ambassadors are champions of rural development that support our work to design innovative training solutions for partners and clients and volunteer their time to accelerate community-based organisations. Our network is global and includes social entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders, bankers, journalists, lawyers and academics.
2021 to 2024
Since 2021, we have developed innovative training programmes alongside rural communities in 10 countries, won awards for our Ostrii platform including the best non-profit project at the 2023 Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards, and collaborated with:
- Grassroot Organisations
- INGO
- Financial Institutions
- UN Agencies
- Universities
- Agribusinesses
We have supported selected grassroot organisations in Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania with free access to the Ostrii platform since January 2023, and in July 2024, we have started to build a first-of-its-kind programme to accelerate community-based organisations.
Kondwani is a 29-year-old youth leader who lives in Livingstonia in Malawi.
KOndwani's story
Our People Feel
A sense of ownership.
As young people that have been raised from the community, we have seen lots of issues that are a result of being in a rural area in one of the poorest nations in the world, including hunger, poverty and poor quality of education.
We saw organisations coming from outside the community to work on areas of agriculture and hunger. But those projects were not sustainable, as soon as they left, the projects finished. Our community did not feel a sense of ownership.
I was born and raised in the village and had the privilege to attend higher education and study Environmental Management at University. I started Rise for Phoka because I saw there was a need to have a local organisation that can tackle local problems. As a personal note, this is a way of giving back with the new skills I have. We work on several issues, including improving the quality of life for women and youth, companionship for the elderly in the community and promoting knowledge on climate change and sustainable agriculture.
This organisation is a first of its kind here – built and owned by the community. Our people feel a sense of ownership and mobilise resources together to channel towards the pressing needs in the community. As a leader, this makes me proud and ignites me to do more and find new ways to impact different areas of life in my community.
However, there is a huge struggle when it comes to our voice being heard and accessing funding and support out there for community led initiatives.
Working with Rural Inclusion has provided us an opportunity to go out to our community and share lessons with Ostrii, which creates more faith from the community that we are an organisation that can bring knowledge and help tackle their challenges.
A perfect partner is one that wants to understand the pressing needs that the community is facing and builds our capacity – helping us help our community. We know our community and the priorities; a perfect partner taps into that.
