experiences and challenges in uganda
Improve the youth Uganda is a not-for-profit local community based organization whose objective is to address the tribulations of underprivileged children and young people who have been affected by unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse, and poverty through the intermediate of games and sports by developing their talents and counseling.
As an accountant of about four years experience volunteering with a financially unstable organization I often had my hands partly struck in multiple departments which apart from finance also included programs coordinator and administrator. I was accountable for maintaining and updating the financial records which has ensured additional funding from the government, mobilization and monitoring of funds and for a period of about 6 month I managed to fund raise to a target of US $ 6944.94 which enable us to reach our dream new home. Preparing an accurate and timely financial report which has enabled the top management to come up sound investment decisions which have generated extra income for the organization. I also ensured that appropriate accounting policies are applied during the preparation of yearly budgets and this has strengthened our relationship with both local and international donors so much that the number of our donors augmented from 2 to 4 donors and this has been followed by an increase in the number of beneficiaries.
I find it irresistible working with an organization that is flourishing to improve the quality of lives of children and young people, I also have the benefit of working in accounts department particularly because I have felicity for numbers and I have always wanted to help in identifying cost cutting measures, developing tax strategies and performing sensitivity analysis to support revenue projects through social entrepreneurship.
In as much as am happy with what am doing there are challenges which include inadequate funds to bring about community projects; under staffing which has stretched me from one department to another; handling multiple task with deadlines it has also proved challenging; poor financial policies approved by the top management.
just about the issue of funds I have engineered a number of social enterprises and about 100 young people from the community have been engaged; I have also engaged in training the young people in basic financial and administrative skill and this has help to fill in the gap of under staffing; I have undertaken fresher courses on sound financial polices and how to automate some task while ensuring