The ‘Enhancing The Capacity at Gulu Disabled Persons Union’ project was set up in 2017 by two returned Voluntary Service Overseas volunteers, who had worked in Gulu, Northern Uganda from 2013 to 2015 on the DFID sponsored Youth Development Programme.

As their project developed they realised that it should be formally established with a full board of trustees and subject to the UK charities moral, legal and financial codes and regulations.  They set up the UK based charity, Enhancing The Capacity of Persons with Disability (ETC of PWD) in June 2018, UK Registered Charity Number: 1178779. ETC of PWD is now the parent charity to the ETC@GDPU project.

Gulu Disabled Persons Union was one of the most impressive institutions on the Youth Development Programme.  the GDPU teachers were some of the most dedicated and the GDPU students some of the most hard working and innovative on the YDP .

On their return to the UK, Mary and Mark wanted to find a way to continue the support given to the ex GDPU/ YDP student business groups. After long discussion and consultation in Uganda and in the UK, ETC @ GDPU was the result.

In Gulu Mary worked on Monitoring and Evaluation for the whole Youth Development Programme, but also worked very closely with GDPU students on Peer Support and in developing a Disability and Vocational Training Good Practice Guide for all Vocational Training for colleges to use; a crucial training resource.

Mark worked on the curriculum design and delivery aspects of the Youth Development Programme. He was  the Vocational Training Specialist based in Daniel Comboni Vocational Training Institute in Gulu, but also ran workshops across the programme supporting individual teachers and liaising wit college managers.