Aa young East African Grant making organization focused on human rights and social justice issues. At its establishment, the founders of the organization saw the need to place an emphasis on the protection and promotion particularly of second-generation – economic social and cultural rights. It was clear, as early as then, that creating awareness amongst both rights holders as well as duty bearers on this set of basic rights would be a monumental task. Doing this in environments where the existing legal framework remains fragile and somewhat tentative and where resource constraints apparently make it difficult for citizens to claim these rights amounts to an even greater challenge. Akiba Uhaki Foundation has over the period of its existence sought to develop practical approaches to addressing these challenges. Through program initiatives that aim to ‘stimulate change from below’, Akiba Uhaki Foundation seeks to find practical ways of addressing the myriad of needs that manifest themselves within a variety of community settings, through three primary thrusts: a research and advocacy program that promotes evidence driven advocacy, drawing largely from action oriented research; a leadership and institutional strengthening program – where attempts are made to nurture, develop and strengthen committed and visionary leaders and institutions that aim to effectively advance and promote human rights and social justice in the region; and a social justice philanthropy program in which attempts are made to draw from local philanthropy and use available resources to work with and assist local practitioners and organizations in the human rights sector to undertake creative initiatives aimed at addressing situations of injustice, poverty and human insecurity.