The formation of Action for Development of the Local Communities (ADOL) is directly related to the communities’ destabilisation by the Karimojong armed warriors through cattle rustling and road thuggery. These armed Karimojong raped and forcefully married women, defiled girls, looted property and killed with impunity. As a result,women were left impoverished with no alternative means of livelihoods. Some elderly women committed suicide because they lacked resources for themselves and for raising up grandchildren/orphans. Others have continued to survive on food aid supplied by relief agencies. These abuse and violations have continued because women lack knowledge on their rights and skills to demand for redress from government.

Over time, ADOL started consulting women on their development challenges for possible interventions. Women often enumerated their problems and prioritised projects for their benefit. In order for them to own the process, ADOL involves women in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the projects. Women do select direct beneficiaries through a democratic process. ADOL’s mandate among others is to empower women for self-reliance. They always constitute project management committee for reinforcing ADOL technical team in planning.

ADOL’ s Promoting Women Rights in Abim District, Karamoja Sub-region, aims to address the bride price induced women’s rights abuse. Bride price are normally paid to seal a marriage but exacerbate women’s right abuses and harmful practices. Although women contribute to over 95% of the labour force in garden  and small-scale agricultural work, they are discriminated against in the equal sharing of household resources like land, harvest and sharing of income-generation from crop production and other domestic activities. And so, there is need for women to undertake human rights awareness activities to address these inequalities.

Eighty women are trained as community trainers in Gender-Based Violence for improved service delivery and; empowers 2 Human Rights Activist groups with skills to convey human rights and peace building messages to the communities through music, dance and drama. The 80 women are trained as trainer of  trainers in observing, protecting and promoting human rights and gender-based violence. The 80 trainers are then trained the rest of the other 550 women at community/household level. They use Music, Dance and Drama in Human Rights and Gender-Based Violence: 2 Music, Dance and Drama groups facilitated with costumes and instruments to compose music, dance and drama on service delivery gaps and women rights.