Uganda: Empowering Orphans to Become Entrepreneurs

The support to OVC to become entrepreneurs through the Kitovu Mobile program has continued to spread from one Sub County to the other. Both new recruits and pass out have exhibited a positive trend towards development with focus on self-reliance.

After realizing such benefits over years, this year  2015 began with arrangements to establish a new Mobile Farm school in Byakabanda Sub county of Rakai district. This Sub County was chosen among others after assessing the levels of vulnerability among the youth and the general community and  Byakabanda sub county scored highest. The project is to target 100 teenage school dropouts both girls and boys with girls given a positive discrimination.

Among the activities so far done include, mobilization and sensitization of the community about the project in which over 200(85%) of the targeted people attended the meeting. The meeting intended to raise awareness about the project and also determine how it will fit into the community plans.

Similarly home assessment was carried out to verify the information generated during the meeting and also to confirm the youth that are legible for the training. It was noted that the number in need to join the training was more than 100 which is our target and due to limited resources we could not surpass the target.

There was a positive community response about the entire project and as part of their contribution they provided the training venue and land for establishing a demonstration garden. Training is expected to begin in two weeks’ time from now. Despite the inevitable challenges, we believe this will be quite a big push to the community in an effort to empower the youth to acquire sustainable solutions to address their challenges.