Our Story
Growing up alongside the youth we serve.
DROTY started as a small group of young people in Kyotera who had experienced first-hand the difficulties facing rural youth and wanted to do something about it. It was a youth-led, youth-serving organization then, and remains one today. The work spans continents now, but the through-line is the same. This is how it happened.
Beginnings
From idea to organization.
2016
A small group of young people in Kyotera came together with a shared conviction that the next generation deserved better than what they had been handed. They registered with the Rakai District Community Development Office as a Community-Based Organization and held their first meeting at Serona Hotel.
2017
DROTY officially registered with Uganda’s National NGO Bureau in November. The team rented their first office and connected with their first supporters through social media and community events. That same year, DROTY began visiting schools in Kyotera and building relationships with national health organizations. The work that would define the next decade — schools, advocacy, partnership — was already taking shape.
BUILDING
From first projects to international partners.
2018
DROTY’s first physical project went up at Migongo Primary School — a latrine block designed for girls, built so they wouldn’t miss school. The same year, the team launched the Kyotera Women’s Health Charity Run with the local government, ran the first youth health camp, and partnered with SAALT USA. The shape of DROTY’s work for the next decade was set in one year.
"A young girl's place is school."
2019
DROTY built three girls’ latrines at Njeru, Ndolo, and Mayanja Primary Schools through a partnership with Saalt — facilities that gave students, especially girls during menstruation, a reason to stay in school. The second edition of the Kyotera Women’s Health Charity Run drew a growing crowd.
2020
Just weeks after DROTY held the 3rd Edition of the Kyotera Women’s Health Charity Run, Covid restrictions hit Uganda. The team launched the COVID-19 Food Relief Program, delivering food, hygiene supplies, and scholastic materials to families headed by children and single mothers. Outreach went to the radio. The year proved DROTY could keep going when the work looked nothing like it was supposed to.
2021
DROTY’s work crossed borders this year. The team visited the SAALT office in Boise, Idaho, deepening a partnership that began in 2018. More international partnerships followed. The 4th Edition Run went virtual, with participants joining from around the world. At home, the team built another WASH facility at Misoto Primary School. The work that started in one district had reached across the Atlantic.
2022
DROTY built a full sanitation facility at Kisuula Primary School — changing rooms and handwashing station included — and expanded school outreach into reproductive health and life skills curriculum. The physical work and the classroom work had become two sides of the same intervention.
Growing
From local work to national presence.
2023
The 6th Edition of the Kyotera Women’s Health Charity Run was the largest yet, drawing more participants and more partners than any previous year. DROTY’s voice reached national policy spaces: a new partnership with the Uganda Alcohol Policy Alliance, participation in the Uganda Alcohol Policy Conference, and outreach to schools on adolescent and youth reproductive health. The work that had started at one primary school in 2018 was now being heard in policy rooms. DROTY had become a voice in the rooms where decisions get made.
"We are running to keep a girl child in school."
2024
DROTY brought outreach work to Kalisizo Hospital in partnership with REPSSI (Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative), and met with the Dutch Embassy in Kampala. The work kept finding new partners. The Sexual & Reproductive Health workshops continued across the region — school by school, classroom by classroom. What had started as a few workshops at a single school was now spread across a district.
2025 - Today
DROTY launched the Pass the SAALT Menstrual Health Program — a scaled, named initiative that distributed reusable menstrual cups across schools in Kyotera and beyond. The team marked Menstrual Hygiene Day with campaigns for a Period-Friendly World, and partnered with Child Marriage Free World on community outreach against child marriage. A new partnership with the Edukreacja Foundation is supporting skills training work. From a single meeting at Serona Hotel to programs that span continents — the work continues.
"When women teach women, shame has no place to hide."
This is just the beginning.
The timeline ends here. The work doesn’t — and the next chapter is the largest one yet. DROTY’s vision is taking shape: a permanent home for the work, a campus where everything we’ve learned can grow in one community. Our Vision is where we’re naming what it takes.