Bold Movements
Edition 1, 2026
Welcome to Bold Movements!
Happy 2026, readers, we hope the new year is off to a joyful & impactful start. As CRVPF continues to celebrate 10 years of impact, we are excited to share stories and snapshots from recent times that were filled with momentum, courage, and collaboration. This edition of Bold Movement shines a light on the everyday heroes behind our work: community partners, children, young people, and communities driving change across Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda. Together, we’re building bold movements that keep children and young people safe from violence and sexual violence.
Story Festival: Where Young Voices Meet Opportunity
Across our Story Circles with young people participating in the Empowering Youth Through Data and Community Development (EYDCD) program, supported by Mastercard Foundation, two themes kept resurfacing: marketing and mentorship.
Young people, including those in refugee communities, young people with disabilities, and aspiring entrepreneurs, were producing incredible products: bags, books, basketry, hair services, clothing and more. Yet many struggled to market their work effectively, especially online, missing access to the growing digital marketplace. They also wanted relatable mentors, not abstract advice, but real people who had walked similar journeys and succeeded.
So, we listened. And that listening shaped the Story Festival. The festival brought together successful youth entrepreneurs, former program participants, government representatives, financial institutions, media actors, and private sector partners in one shared space.
Through technical panels and open dialogue, young people engaged directly with institutions that often feel distant or inaccessible.
Participants heard from entrepreneurs like Tumubwine Edina, Founder of Emmanuella Braiding, who built her business through persistence and strategic use of social media. NRG Radio also engaged young people on using their phones as tools for visibility and income generation. The event generated tangible outcomes, including 20 internship placements from a private sector agriculture partner, strengthened peer networks, and expanded media visibility for youth-led businesses.
THE LIGHT SHE CARRIES
Real Stories. Real Mothers. Real Power.
CRVPF is proud to present The Light She Carries, a collection of real stories from young mothers, supported by the Young Mother’s Project, whose courage and resilience illuminate paths of hope and renewal.
In 2023, through the Adolescent Girls Power Program (AGPP) with support from the Hilton Foundation, CRVPF launched the Young Mothers Project in Kenya (Nairobi and Siaya) and Tanzania (Dar es Salaam). This initiative was born out of alarming findings: during the COVID-19 pandemic, sexual violence against adolescent girls rose by 27.1%, resulting in 37.6% becoming pregnant and 35.9% giving birth.
Behind these numbers are complex realities including, school closures and the loss of safe spaces, economic stress that drove transactional sex and child marriage, and disrupted health services that reduced access to contraception, reproductive care, and vital information.
The Young Mothers Project partners with community organizations to provide young mothers with a holistic package of skills, mentorship, and psychosocial support.
In safe spaces, which are nurturing and welcoming environments, adolescent girls meet regularly and are guided by mentors who themselves are young mothers, trained and supported by CRVPF’s community partners.
While the girls learn, share, and heal, their children (ages 0–3) are cared for in CRVPF-supported Early Childhood Development centres, ensuring their healthy growth and well-being.
The project’s goal is clear and powerful: to help young mothers and their children lead safe, dignified, and sustainable lives, free from violence and sexual violence.
PVAC: A Decade of Violence Prevention Across Four Countries
The Prevention of Violence Against Children and Young People (PVAC) program is CRVPF’s oldest and most foundational initiative. Now implemented across four countries, it has shaped how communities, schools, and institutions understand prevention, not as an add-on, but as the core of a child’s ad young person’s well-being.
Reflecting on the program’s journey, Albert Asiimwe, CRVPF’s PVAC Regional Program Coordinator, notes that there isn’t just one moment that proves prevention works, there are several.
One of the clearest examples is the Parenting for Respectability (PfR) manual. Because it is evidence-based and locally tested, PVAC has not relied on imported models. It fits the realities of families where it is used. Over the years, Albert has met parents who have shed tears, saying they wished they had been introduced to positive parenting earlier, that they simply did not know there were non-violent ways to guide their children. He has also witnessed transformation among community partners. In the early years, many proposals focused primarily on response, managing violence and sexual violence cases after harm had occurred. Today, those same partners prioritise prevention. That shift has extended beyond civil society and into government institutions that increasingly recognise prevention as being central to creating safe ecosystems for children and young people.
In schools, Safe Schools approaches, including student-led clubs, focal teachers, and structured reflection meetings have contributed to measurable reductions in violence and sexual violence. At household level, integrating Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) into parenting groups has helped reduce financial stress, enabling families to meet basic needs without resorting to harmful coping mechanisms.
In Tanzania, young men and women who once migrated long distances in search of domestic work, often without information or protection now make informed decisions, seek safer opportunities, and manage their finances more responsibly.
As CRVPF begins documenting PVAC’s legacy, one truth stands out: prevention may be quiet work, but over time, it reshapes systems.
When Skills, Savings, and Mentorship Come Together
Recently, we visited Goshen’s Fountain of Nutrition and Health in Mukono, one of our EYDCD community partners, and witnessed the power of intentional investment in young women.
Through support from the Empowering Youth Through Data and Community Development (EYDCD) program, these women have been trained in baking, with a strong emphasis on using organic, locally sourced ingredients processed within their incubation hub. They are also organised into Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), enabling them to save, borrow, and steadily strengthen their financial resilience.
Some have expanded into making and selling products such as chapati and other snacks in local markets, contributing directly to household income. With income has come something equally powerful: confidence.
Joining the visit was Charlotte Mutesi of 23Cakes, a self-taught master baker who built her business during COVID-19. After first hearing about the group at Story Festival 2025, she offered a masterclass where she shared professional techniques and market insights. In return, the young women shared their own innovation in organic baking.
This exchange reflects CRVPF’s 2026 commitment to structured mentorship: creating both short- and long-term opportunities for young people to learn from established practitioners across trades. A reverse visit is already being planned, where the young women will engage Charlotte in her professional setting, deepening the learning journey.
This is how dignified livelihoods are built: through skills, savings, and sustained mentorship.