Visionaries and Founders
Under difficult situations of security and poor living conditions, thanks to our thought leaders Robert Fritz, Silvana Veltkamp, Prof. Peter Penge of MIT, Martha and Don Dolben, Tom and Patty Hagan, Bob Anderson, Cohen Stuart, and a host of other friends of URDT who came to think and work with their Ugandan friends in building the institution. The partnership is our proof of concept.
Together with our Partners, the Uganda Rural Development and Training Programme (URDT) and AFPF launched a strategic intervention for linking education and a liberating methodology to transform the quality of life in rural Uganda and Africa. Leaders of both organizations sat on each other’s boards as co-creators.
Out of this collaboration, URDT developed tactical education institutions as carriers and pathways for propagating the Visionary Approach and giving national and regional visibility.
URDT empowers rural communities by teaching them to harness their innate creativity to improve their lives. The change-makers in these communities are primarily girls and women trained as rural transformation specialists and young men and women who benefit from vocational education to learn a trade and launch their businesses. They practice organic, regenerative agriculture and leverage sustainable technologies.
The methodological departure in a paradigm shift from traditional Problem-Solving to Creative Orientation has defined the partnership.
OUR APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT
SYSTEMS CHANGE
URDT's fundamental mission is to enable people of Uganda to recognize and embody shared vision, values and work together to create for themselves Peace, Prosperity, Freedom, Health and Happiness as they discover that they are key to their own development. Communities are building climate resilience lifestyles and businesses that match their own values and aspirations. URDT’s development efforts are based on working premises that lasting change comes only when people shift from reacting to circumstances /problem solving to being creators of what they truly want. URDT embraces the Ubuntu Philosophy: “I am because you are.” This philosophy underscores interconnectedness, empathy, and collaboration. It harmoniously aligns with the concept of co-creating positive change within communities. URDT’s development approach fosters sustainable development at individual, home, village level and subcounty level.
ARU SATELITE APPROACH
ARU's footprint spans 20 districts in Mid-Western Uganda, fostering entrepreneurship, visionary leadership and dignified work in construction, agriculture and tourism. These Epicentre Mangers have enabled over 100 community-based groups to establish sustainable farming businesses, improve the standards of living and protect the local natural resources. They established 500 artisan-managed learning centres, reaching 34,000 young women and men, including refugees and people with disabilities. This Program is implemented through The Satellite Approach. The Satellite Approach is a URDT innovation which involves off-campus training conducted by artisans and model farmers in their own workshops and farms. This hands-on approach ensures that young people receive practical and relevant education while contributing to the economic growth of their communities. It's a win-win situation, as young trainees learn valuable skills, artisans increase their production and income, and model farmers transition into the mainstream private sector. In appreciation of this approach, URDT was recently selected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) to pilot together with the farmers in greater Kibaale the concept of value addition in agriculture and move subsistence farmers, especially women, to become commercial farmers. BENEFIT OF URDT’S SATELITTE APPROACH URDT's Satellite Approach comes with numerous benefits. Young people benefit from its mentorship, and the ability to earn while they learn, facilitating smooth transitions into the workforce. The approach also optimizes various government programs, and trainees can manage projects alongside their training. For local artisans and model farmers, it results in increased income, smoother transitions into the private sector, environmental conservation, and the development of legal and managerial capacities. On a broader scale, the approach promotes community peace and stability, generates local revenue through taxes, establishes accessible training centers, and aligns with the government's skilling initiatives for a prosperous Uganda.
GRASSROOTS APPROACH
Powered by children and families who create visions of the lives they want to live, and then they achieve those goals and teach others by example.
VISIONARY APPROACH
Principles of creating, systems thinking), that enables whole systems or integrated methodology for individuals and collectively work to the realization of what they truly care about. One of the cornerstones of ARU’s impact is the Epicenter Strategy, which involves employing ARU graduates by URDT to work with communities as Epicentre Managers in local governments through Public-Private Partnership. At the heart of this strategy of community driven development is the Visionary Approach: communities get to understand that they are key to their own development.
Impact
Continuing Education
One hundred percent of students graduating from S6 at URDT GS in 2021 or earlier went on to further studies after leaving URDT. Approximately 90% of those who have graduated from higher education are currently employed.
Children and Family
95% were 21 or older when they got their first child. 90% have three children or fewer (the national average in Uganda is 5); 100% have full immunization coverage (the national average in Uganda is 55%); now, 100% make decisions about household income together with their spouse; and 63% own or co-own their house/land, unlike before.
Visionary Leadership and Community Engagement
47% have a leadership role outside of work. Sixty-two percent are giving back to the community, especially through youth groups and religious institutions; 69% voted in the last election.
In the News
From Domestic Violence to Leadership
Melody Ahumuza, a student at the African Rural University for Women (ARU), explains her transformational journey from poverty and domestic violence to receiving education at ARU, making her a visionary women leader, change maker, and a change agent under three cardinal principles of the visionary approach and using a systems approach to work towards the transformation of her family's income and improvement in her community's wellbeing.
Local Recognition
**African Rural University Receives Women Empowerment Trophy**
On March 6, 2025, African Rural University (ARU) and its founding organization, the Uganda Rural Development Training Programme (URDT), were awarded the Women Empowerment Trophy at the Empower Her Awards 2025, themed “Women Driving Change for a Balanced Future.”
As Uganda’s only all-women university focused on rural transformation, ARU is dedicated to uplifting women through education and developing change agents to create positive impacts in Uganda.
Dr. Mwalimu Musheshe, PHD, the Co-Founder of URDT and Vice-Chancellor of African Rural University (ARU), officially received his Award from Kabalega Foundation, which was awarded to him on Saturday during the Royal Dinner Ceremony in commemoration of 100 Years of Omukama Cwa 11 Kabalega. Dr. Mwalimu was awarded for his exceptional contribution to the development of the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom.
11075 young people who were skilled by URDT Institute using the satellite model out of 70000 have established small scale enterprises in various parts of Uganda in Partnership with MASTERCARD FOUNDATION
Young Africa Works
In partnership with the MasterCard Foundation, URDT Institute is training 70,000 young women and men, 70% of whom are females, to become sustainably economically empowered and productive for fulfilling lives in over 20 districts in Western Uganda. Read more..
