Building on the success of our 2018 Cake Baking program which helped 100 Young people living with HIV community members find gainful employment, we are looking to our donors to once again help us teach baking, bakery management and financial literacy skills to 100 additional community members. This program will rebuild and renew LGBTQ communities throughout Western Uganda impacted by poverty. We aim to raise $5,000 to help 100 unemployed sexual minorities find gainful employment by 2021.
Though government institutionalized homophobia is the greatest barrier to members of rural Uganda's LGBTQ community seeking gainful employment, insufficient access to employment and job skills training programs is a close second. In Western Uganda, where our organization is based, poverty creates challenges like lack of access to health care services, shelter, food and education. Despite these challenges, the resiliency and persistence of the local LGBTQ community has never wavered.
Cake Baking for LGBTQ Empowerment in Uganda will allow us to train 100 LGBTQ individuals in cake baking and bakery management. When we ran this program in 2018 we found that for the first time, members of our community had a steady income. We also saw that many lacked the skills to manage it. We've incorporated basic financial literacy training into this round of programs to support participants as they learn to save, borrow, balance a check book, and provide for themselves and families.
This project will train 100 LGBTQ individuals in financial literacy, baking and bakery management, and will allow them to be self-sufficient. With a steady income, they will have improved access to healthcare services, increased options for housing, and will have the opportunity to rise out of poverty and improve their well-being.
