By Norah Owaraga | Project Leader and Managing Director
“Sometimes, when I look back, I can only see thousands of tears which I poured during my struggle to get myself where I am today. It only takes determination, sacrifice and real, real commitment for someone to breakout from the silence of a village like Ocelakur.
One thing I have discovered is that, life is just like a menu from a hotel, where there is varieties of options and it's only you to make a choice of what you want. Each option has got a cost attached to it. For someone to keep on enjoying the best option, the person will have to do what it takes to get there.
Poverty is just like a chronic disease in most of our households and most youth are vulnerable to inherit it from their parents and ancestors before them. It's now upon us the youth to be innovative enough to break this linage of poverty. not only by looking at employment opportunities, but to use creativity and innovation as a firearm and munition to fight poverty. Yes, you can!”
Oluka, indeed, is among those extraordinary young people from humble backgrounds who have persevered through tough times in the city, sometimes not knowing where his next meal will come, but he did not give up. To make ends meet in the city, he was a student by day and a security guard by night – sleeping outside to guard the rich and their properties. Through it all he preserved until he got his degree from a prestigious Ugandan university.
When after graduation he did not get a white collar job, he innovated and set up a retail shop selling motorcycle spare parts. And when Covid-19 induced lockdowns made it impossible for him to continue on with his shop, he took his savings and returned back to his village in Ocelakur. With the little that he had he intervened and helped active poor women with lower interest rate loans that enabled them to do farming for income generation and to do market vending.
It is such educated young adults as Oluka whose affinity and propensity is high to work to better the lot of disadvantaged communities that we, at CPAR Uganda, aspire to mentor into innovators against poverty in their communities. We have every confidence that Oluka is an excellent agent through whom economic empowerment of poor active women in a remote rural setting may be realised.
In January 2023, he was involved in a motorcycle accident, which mercifully he survived with broken bones that could heal. Though he has not fully healed, he is well enough and is actively back to serving his community.
By Robert Oluka | Innovator and Project Leader
By Robert Oluka | Innovator and Project Leader
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