Objectives we strive to meet:
We are a team of dedicated individuals, ready to effect and deliver sustainable change to the unprivileged grassroots communities.
Young-adult Empowerment Initiative (YEI) is a nonprofit youth-led NGO, founded in February 2015 to empower South Sudanese youth and women to create peaceful society and drive social development in their local communities. We are legally registered and operating in Uganda with refugees in Kiryadongo and Bidi Bidi settlements, as well as South Sudan,
in Central Equatoria State and Greater Upper Nile Region.
We envision empowered South Sudanese youth and women for peaceful and inclusive society, who become co-drivers of social development in their local communities.
To strengthen the operational capabilities of South Sudanese youth and women in contributing to sustainable community development through peacebuilding, capacity building, and other social transformation initiatives.
Areas of Focus:
Core Values:
Albino Gaw Dar is a sociologist. He worked for GIZ as Community Development Officer for one year. Prior to his work at GIZ, he spent three years at South Sudan Public Grievances Chamber as Executive Secretary, two years at South Sudan Employees Justice as Research Officer. In those roles, he participated in a number of research works studied topical public issues in South Sudan. Currently, he is a lecturer in Department of Sociology at University of Juba and the Upper Nile University. Dar obtained his B.A degree in Sociology from the University of Gondar, Ethiopia in 2006 and an M. A degree from Kampala International University, Uganda. He also obtained several professional certificates from the University of Maryland in Washington DC, USA, University of Ghana in Ghana and OSSREA Institute in Ethiopia
Gatwal, studied (MBChB) at Kampala International University, is a co-founder and Executive Director of Young-adult Empowerment Initiative (YEI) as well, a founding member of Sudds Enterprise Development Co.Ltd (Sudds). In February 2017, Gatwal participated in President Barack Obama’s signatory program, The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), a 4-month leadership incubation at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. He also participated in US Institute of Peace (USIP) Programs as a USIP - His Holiness The Dalai Lama 2017 fellow. On October 25, 2018, Gatwal received Tomorrow Peacebuilders’ Award (TPA) from Peace Direct at PeaceCon2018 in Washington, DC, USA on behalf of YEI. In 2019, Gatwal was named TPA-2019 Jury Member. He is a Obama Foundation Fellow, a DAFI scholar and a Western Union Global Scholar
Deborah Leter is a French-American Ph.D. candidate in Cultural Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center (City University of New York). Prior to starting her graduate studies, Deborah was co-facilitating peacebuilding workshops in Ugandan refugee settlements with the Ugandan chapter of the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), an international conflict resolution program centered around experiential and participatory methods. Her professional experience has focused on providing support to civil society in East, Central, and Southern Africa through grantmaking at the National Endowment for Democracy and through advocacy with a peacebuilding NGO at the United Nations. She has been a conflict resolution facilitator with AVP for several years, through which she has facilitated workshops in prisons, schools, and community centers in the U.S. Born and raised in France, Deborah received her BA in Anthropology and Peace, Justice and Human Rights from Haverford College in the U.S.
