About us
The SIPD Philosophy
The community can offer much in terms of volunteer services in the fight against stigma. For improved sustainability and effectiveness, the work of government and organisational community workers needs to be reinforced and supplemented by members of the community, who should be informed and equipped with knowledge and skills to mitigate stigma directed at concerned individuals and families. The aspects of volunteer service provided by the community are seen as participatory enrichment programmes and with the community’s involvement; one anticipates a corresponding change in people’s attitudes towards sexual development differences and a corresponding reduction in stigma and discriminatory behaviour.
Who We Are
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Mission
To create Awareness on Intersex / DSD conditions and advocate for a more open, tolerant and supportive society towards children and people with intersex conditions; and to advocate for protection, welfare and respect for the human rights of all such persons in Uganda.
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Vision
SIPD embodies a vision of a world whose appreciation of human beings transcends the present gender dichotomy and the oppressions and violence that this represents.
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Values
Many intersex people do not have access to appropriate information and may not be able to identify their condition with intersexuality. Given our past and ongoing work and clout nationally and regionally, SIPD is well positioned to effect education and awareness on these issues; and create an environment that challenges our static definitions of sex and gender, so that sex indeterminate and gender variant children and people can access their right to freely make their own decisions regarding their sex and gender determination and access appropriate health care and support at will.
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Our Objectives
1. Break through the current superstitious boundaries by showcasing the reality and incidence of intersex conditions in our country and region.
2. Work towards a more compassionate, humane, open and tolerant society through innovative communication approaches, such as educational and informative awareness drives aimed at challenging the exclusion of this population affected by intersex conditions from social, legal, economic, spiritual, and political frameworks.
3. Increase the availability and clarity of information on intersex conditions and ensure that this information is appropriately interpreted at the grassroots level where most of the socially orchestrated marginalization, hostility and ignorance originate.
4. Lay the foundation for SIPD as an advocacy and support organization aimed at promoting the civil liberties and human rights of children and people affected by intersex conditions through the development and engagement of relevant change agents at community level – health workers, parents, community leaders, young people, religious and faith leaders, and school authorities – who will recognize and promote the development benefits of an open, informed, compassionate, and tolerant society.
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Main Focus of Our Work
Uganda, and indeed the entire East African region hold vehemently superstitious attitudes towards difference, variance, and disability. This attitude has made it so closed a society that social, economic, political and religious fraternities all promote and or encourage silence concerning these realities and the plight children and families face as a result of these realities.
Many people with intersex conditions experience significant stigma and discrimination in Uganda such as humiliation, ostracism, exploratory rape, evictions from accommodation facilities due to superstitions, ritualistic murder of intersex infants, lack of access to healthcare, employment, and education to exclusion from community and family life as well as domestic violence for mothers of such children.
Since gender inequities and related violence are critical contributors to denying these children and their mothers the basic right to maximise their full potentials, SIPD aims to work with a wide spectrum of people (medical practitioners, faith leaders, other human rights organizations, education authorities, and policy makers) towards the realisation and protection of human rights for this minority population. Furthermore, SIPD is committed to mitigating human rights violations and stigma related to variance in gender and sex development, so that all human beings can realise their God given human rights, and maximise their human potentials.
Our MAIN FOCUS therefore is creating awareness and providing public education and capacity building for key stakeholders, and to mobilise allies and partners as a sustainable way of creating social change. Through these strategies we hope that civil society, government, and the general public will be more supportive of intersex children and people and their families.
Governance
SIPD is governed by a six-person Board of Directors and managed by an Executive Director.
