Privacy

Who we are

Youth Refugees United for Development (YRUD) is a refugee-led community organisation in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Isingiro District, Uganda, registered with Isingiro District Local Government (No. 0624). You can reach us at yrud.ug@gmail.com.

What we keep, and why

• Messages you send us (contact form): your name, email, organisation if you give one, and your message — so we can reply.
• Following along (/subscribe): your name, email, country and WhatsApp number if you give them, and what you're interested in — so we can send updates. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link.
• Joining as a member, and survey answers: your name, phone, village, languages, email if you give one, and your answers — including answers to a survey for your job (for example teacher, farmer or health worker) — so YRUD can hear what the community needs and build it. Whether your name may be shown is your choice.
• Member accounts: if YRUD invites you by email, your account is joined to your member record so you can see your own answers, the request written from them, its funding and its progress. Messages you post in the members' conversation are seen by other active members and YRUD's administrators.
• Visits from a YRUD volunteer: we only visit with your agreement. The volunteer writes down your answers and may record the talk. A recording is turned into text and the sound is not kept. The text, the volunteer's notes and the plan written from them are seen only by that volunteer and YRUD's administrators. You can see your visit's progress in your account, but not the transcript or notes.
• Build Directly requests: a request written from your answers stays private until you have seen it and agreed. Only then is it shown publicly, and only with the details you agreed to. Your name is shown only if you said yes.
• Following requests: if you make an account to follow requests, we keep your email and which requests you follow.
• Offering to volunteer: your name, how to reach you, where you are, the ways you'd like to help and anything you tell us — seen only by YRUD's administrators.
• Asking for help: what you tell us, and a way to reach you if you give one.
• Gifts: card and mobile-money gifts are handled by Pesapal, and the moringa appeal by Chuffed. We keep your name, email or phone, the amount and the payment reference so we can send a receipt. We never see or keep card numbers. Bank-transfer requests keep your name, email and country so we can send our bank details.
• Accounts for team members, advisers and artists: your email address (or your Google sign-in) and your name.
• Photos: we only show photos of people who have given permission, and anyone can take that permission back.
• Stopping spam: a scrambled (one-way) fingerprint of your connection, so we can spot repeated automated sign-ups. It can't be turned back into your address.

What we don't ask for

We ask for as little as we can. We never ask for home addresses, ID documents, asylum or case details, health conditions, or political or religious views, and we never see or keep card numbers. Every box except your name is optional unless we say why it's needed.

Who can see it

Only YRUD's administrators, and team members whose job needs a particular part (for example, the person who looks after the mailing list, or the volunteer who visited you). Advisers and the public never see it. We don't sell or rent anyone's information, and we don't use advertising trackers.

To run the site we use a few services that store or pass information on our behalf: our website host and database, our email service, and Pesapal and Chuffed for gifts. AI tools help us summarise YRUD's own meeting notes and documents, turn visit recordings into text, and draft a first plan from a visit's answers. A person always checks that plan before anything is shared, and we don't use the public's messages to us for this.

We never ask for the names of pupils or patients, and the tools we build with you should not hold them unless you choose to.

How it is protected, and for how long

Everything travels over encrypted connections. Private parts of the site need a sign-in, and each person only sees the parts their role needs. Visit recordings are never stored.

We keep information only while it's needed: messages and volunteer offers for as long as we're in touch, member and survey records while you're a member or a request built from them is open, and gift records for as long as the law asks us to keep accounts. After that we delete it. You can ask us to delete yours sooner.

Gifts and tax

YRUD is a Ugandan community organisation, not a US 501(c)(3). Gifts are not tax-deductible or tax-exempt. If YRUD later partners with a US fiscal sponsor, we'll name the sponsor here and explain what changes.

What's stored on your device

Only what the site needs to work: keeping you signed in if you have an account, remembering a survey answer you haven't finished, and where you stopped in an audio track. No advertising cookies.

Your choices

You can ask to see, correct or delete what we hold about you, or take back permission for a photo, at any time — write to yrud.ug@gmail.com or tell a YRUD team member in person. Saying no, or changing your mind, never changes the help you receive. Uganda's Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019 also gives you these rights.