Privacy Policy

This policy explains how YAREN Organisation Ltd handles personal information when you use yarenorganisation.org, contact us, join our newsletter, apply for a programme or volunteer role, or make a donation. It also explains how we protect information about the refugee and host community members who take part in our programmes.

YAREN Organisation Ltd is a refugee led organisation registered in Uganda, and we are responsible for the personal information described in this policy. We handle it in line with Uganda’s Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019.

This policy sits alongside our Terms and Conditions and Safeguarding Policy.

Information you give us

• Contact form: your name, email address, phone number if you choose to give it, and your message.
• Newsletter: your email address.
• Programme and volunteer applications: the details you enter in our application forms, such as your name, contact details, location and the programme or role you are interested in.
• Donations: your name, email address, the amount you give and any message you add. Your card or bank details go to Donorbox and its payment processors, not to YAREN.
• Emails, calls and WhatsApp messages: whatever you choose to share with us when you get in touch directly.

Information collected automatically

When you visit the website, our hosting and security provider records limited technical information, such as your IP address, browser type, the pages you request and the time of your visit. Our forms also run a short automated check to confirm that a real person, not a bot, is sending them. We use this information to keep the website working and secure, not to build a profile of you.

Many of the people we work with are refugees, children or adults at risk. To run our programmes safely, we may hold information such as names, contact numbers, nationality, refugee status, age, and details about health, wellbeing or family circumstances.

We treat this information as sensitive. We collect only what a programme needs, explain why we are asking for it, and get consent before we collect it. For a child, we ask a parent or guardian for consent. Only staff who need the information for their work can see it.

We use personal information to:

• reply to your enquiries and keep a record of our conversation;
• send you our newsletter, if you asked to receive it;
• review applications and contact you about programmes, placements and volunteer roles;
• process and record donations, send receipts, and meet our accounting and reporting duties;
• deliver our programmes, follow up with participants and measure our impact;
• respond to safeguarding concerns and keep people safe; and
• protect the website from spam, misuse and attacks.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.

We use personal information only where the law allows. In most cases, that is because you have given your consent, for example by sending a form or joining our newsletter. We also use it where we need to deliver something you have asked for, meet a legal duty such as keeping financial records, or protect someone’s safety or vital interests.

Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This does not affect anything we did with your information before you withdrew it.

We share personal information only with organisations that help us run our work, and only what they need to do it:

• Cloudflare, which hosts the website and protects our forms from spam;
• Resend, which delivers our emails and manages our newsletter mailing list;
• Google, which provides the forms we use for programme and volunteer applications;
• Donorbox and its payment processors, which process donations; and
• Far Away Project, our fiscal sponsor, which receives donations made through our website and keeps the records the law requires.

These organisations handle your information under their own privacy policies and the agreements we have with them.

We may also share information with the Uganda Police or another authority where the law requires it, or where we need to act to protect a child or an adult at risk, as set out in our Safeguarding Policy.

Some of the services we use store information on servers outside Uganda, including in the United States and Europe. We choose providers that protect personal information to a standard comparable to Ugandan law, and we share only what each service needs.

We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not use analytics tools that follow you across other websites.

The website saves a few small preferences in your browser, such as the currency you chose and whether you closed the donation banner, so it can remember them on your next visit. This information stays on your device and is not sent to us. You can clear it at any time in your browser settings.

Our spam protection, and services we link to or embed such as Donorbox and Google Forms, may set their own cookies when you use them. Their privacy policies explain how they use them.

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it for:

• enquiries, for as long as we need to respond and follow up;
• newsletter details, until you unsubscribe;
• applications, for the intake you applied for and, if you agree, the next intake;
• donation and financial records, for as long as the law requires; and
• safeguarding records, for as long as our Safeguarding Policy and the law require.

When we no longer need information, we delete it or remove anything that identifies you.

We protect personal information with secure, encrypted connections, password protected accounts and access limited to the people who need it. Our staff and volunteers agree to keep personal information confidential. No system is completely secure, so if a breach puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the relevant authority as the law requires.

Our website is meant for adults. If you are under 18, please ask a parent or guardian before you send us your details. We collect information about children in our programmes only with a parent’s or guardian’s consent, and we handle it under our Safeguarding Policy.

Under Uganda’s Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019, you have the right to:

• know what personal information we hold about you and how we use it;
• get a copy of it;
• ask us to correct it if it is wrong or incomplete;
• ask us to delete it, or to stop using it;
• withdraw your consent at any time; and
• unsubscribe from our newsletter using the link in any email.

To use any of these rights, contact us at info@yarenorganisation.org. We may ask you to confirm your identity first. We will reply as soon as we can and within the time the law allows.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us so we can put it right. You can also complain to Uganda’s Personal Data Protection Office.

We may update this policy as our work, our services and the law change. The date at the top and bottom of this page shows when it was last updated. If we make an important change, we will tell newsletter subscribers.

Email

info@yarenorganisation.org

Phone

+256 200 921732

Working days

Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM