Staff

Eric Younger

Executive Director

Eric Younger is FCDE’s Executive Director. Eric has run nonprofit development organizations for 12 years. His community development work has been focused on international locations including East Africa, Eastern Europe, South and Central America and India as well as the Navajo Reservation. Eric’s work has focused on building the organizational capacity of small to medium sized indigenous NGOs. In particular, Eric’s previous work as an Operations Manager in the private sector has led to a focus on helping organizations achieve more sustainable development by integrating appropriate free market forces into traditional nonprofit environments. Eric’s passion for ensuring that interns and volunteers play a role in community development work arises from his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Papua New Guinea (‘91-‘93) and then as an Associate Peace Corps Country Director in Bulgaria (‘03-‘06). Outside of community development work Eric has a strong passion for environmental and conservation issues. Eric is the Board Chair of Advocates for the West where he works to help further the protection and restoration of public lands, water, and wildlife in the American West. Eric earned his undergraduate degree in Math from Occidental College and his Masters in International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management. You can reach Eric at eric@internationalcommunitydevelopment.org.

Rebecca Raymond

Consultant

Rebecca Raymond has more than 12 years of experience working in youth and community development - most recently as the US Program Director for the Asante Africa Foundation in Kenya and Tanzania and as the Director of the Indian Education Center at the American Indian Child Resource Center (AICRC) in Oakland. She has developed a robust understanding of issues and community needs across nonprofit and development sectors: As a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Kingdom of Tonga, in the Native community in Oakland, and with local CBOs in Kenya and Uganda, she facilitated needs assessments in communities, convened focus groups, researched best practices in the field, and utilized findings to create comprehensive, multi-faceted programs to address community-identified needs and solutions.

She has successfully written funding proposals at local, state, and federal levels and served as a technical trainer producing educational materials and procedural guidelines for the United States Peace Corps, Asante Africa staff, FSD in-country teams, and AICRC youth workers. Her education and clinical training includes master’s degrees in Counseling Psychology and International Social Development, both of which have focused on cultivating meaningful partnerships across organizations and cultures.

Yi-Ching Hwang

International Programs Director

Yi-Ching has been working in the field of sustainable development & community empowerment for about five years. Her work has led her to remote villages in Bolivia, Ecuador, Inner Mongolia, China, and India where she collaborated on projects such as sustainable agricultural practices, rural distribution of basic consumer products, and greening efforts in the international cashmere supply chain. Yi-Ching served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from ’04 – ’06. Most recently she spent five months in India working with a for-profit social enterprise assisting in their scale-up efforts. Aside from her international assignments, she’s also worked with peace building and community reconstruction efforts in Salinas, California. As an immigrant from Taiwan, Yi-Ching is fluent in Mandarin, Spanish and English; she’s proficient in Taiwanese and has some basic comprehension of Quechua and Indian Sign Language. Yi-Ching holds a BS degree in engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

International Staff

Esther Kabugho

Kasese, Uganda Program Director

Esther holds a Master of Arts in Human Rights and a Bachelor of Arts in Arts (Sociology and Geography). Her career objective is to work with and for the marginalized communities towards human rights realization through capacity building, advocacy and management of community initiated development programs.

Prior to joining FCDE, Esther worked as a Program Manager with Agency for Capacity Building (ACB), a Non-Government Organization (NGO) that provides services geared towards sustainable development in poor and vulnerable communities. She also worked with Concern Worldwide in the Kampala Community Empowerment Project (KCEP) as a Community Development Worker and later as a Project Officer where she built the capacity of partner organizations and coordinated advocacy activities at project level and among partner organizations respectively. She has 10 years of experience with good knowledge and skills in project cycle management, capacity building, advocacy and research. She has leadership and management skills backed by her experience in project cycle management including project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning, organizational policies and systems development, Public Private Partnerships-PPP and networking. She has used her expertise in designing; managing and coordinating regional and district level capacity building programs in areas of human rights based approach to programming, Gender and HIV/AIDS mainstreaming and advocacy.

Esther is a native of Kasese district in Uganda, and after working in different parts of Uganda for a long time, she is excited to spearhead FCDE’s development of the Kasese program. She is looking forward towards empowering communities through her work with FCDE. You can reach Esther at fcde.esther@gmail.com.

Sylvia Kabugho

Kasese, Uganda Program Coordinator

Sylvia Kabugho holds a B.A (Honors) degree in Education. She has 7 years of work experience with Community Development Projects in Rural and Urban settings in Uganda. Prior to joining FCDE as a Program Coordinator, Sylvia worked with Samaritans Purse International Relief‘s Prescription for Hope, as an area Program Supervisor in the Sub Counties of Kamwenge Town Council, Nyabani and Kabambiro in Kamwenge District. She was instrumental in mobilizing communities towards a collective response to HIV/AIDS through training and equipping Community Based Organizations with skills, knowledge and resources to change their communities.

She later served as a Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator for MET (mobilizing, equipping, and training) program in Kamwenge and helped lead the effort to prevent new HIV infections among youth living in Uganda alongside her counterparts in Mozambique, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Sylvia has worked with USAID/Strengthening Democratic Linkages in Uganda (LINKAGES) Project as a Program officer. The LINKAGES project aimed at strengthening the relationship between Parliament, Local governments and civil society organizations. Sylvia was also central in coordinating the Review of the Uganda Police Force under the LINKAGES project.

Sylvia joins the FCDE team with skills in project design & management, conducting surveys, monitoring and evaluation, training and developing training tools. She looks forward to contribute to the sustainable development in Kasese through her work with FCDE. You can reach Sylvia at fcde.sylvia@gmail.com

Interns

Amaya Lucas

Summer Intern

Amaya Lucas is the summer intern at FCDE’s headquarters. She is currently a student at Lewis and Clark College, double majoring in Mathematics and Physics. Amaya has a great appreciation for sustainability and environmental issues, having worked with Advocates for the West throughout high school. She also fundraised with her college’s chapter of BuildOn and independently for the Nature Conservancy. She is excited to be a part of the community-driven development movement. You can reach Amaya at fcde.amaya@gmail.com