By Norah Owaraga | Project Leader and Managing Director
“Nsubuga is a metal fabricator and welder. The 39 years-old is a graduate of mechanical engineering from Makerere University. However, after a short stint in a white-collar job, he discovered that his fortune lay in ‘getting his hands dirty’ … “I thought about it, and came to the conclusion that an illiterate welder or mechanic earns about Shs. 30,000 daily which, at the end of the month, was far higher than what I was earning.
So, after two years of employment, I resigned and resolved to become a smart, educated and honest metal welder … I love crafting and I have enjoyed fixing things since childhood … I chose welding because it involves lots of creativity and it is very rewarding … Studying mechanical engineering sharpened my mind and taught me to be a perpetual problem solver. This is what welding is all about.”” Daily Monitor (2021) in “From mechanical Engineer to Welder.”
Becoming a “smart, educated and honest metal welder,” is what Innovator O aspires to. An achievement he wishes also for other young people, some of whom are highly educated and are unemployed, such as he.
Unlike Nsubaga, since graduating with a Bachelor of Management Science from Kyambogo University, Innovator O has never succeeded in getting employed in a white-collar job. This is despite making several job applications. For a while he despaired, but being a double orphan, he had no choice but to find a way in which to make a living.
He is from a humble background and a disadvantaged community, perhaps the reason why unlike many university graduates in Uganda, Innovator O is not afraid to get his hands dirty. Failing to get a white-collar job, he started a business as a shoe hawker. And it is while he hawked shoes – travelling in lorries with other traders to pop-up roving markets that he came to learn about the CPAR Uganda “Mentoring Young Adults into Innovators Against Poverty” programme.
As part of his mentorship experience, Innovator O was among young people whom CPAR Uganda selected to participate as research assistants in a research and advocacy project. He was deployed to work in a district not his home district. Whilst there the Covid-19 pandemic happened and the resultant lockdowns found him away from home.
In an instant, Covid-19 induced lockdowns rendered unemployed millions of white-collar job workers in Uganda. And since Uganda is not a welfare state, majority of jobs are not unionised, and the few that are the labour unions a weak, there was hardly any welfare support for the millions instantly made jobless.
However, many of those who were doing ‘get your hands dirty’ jobs continued to work and to earn, perhaps even more than they previously earned pre-lockdown. Specifically, those in private practice - small artisanal business owners.
Innovator O, decided to take the initiative to ask to apprentice with a welder, less formally educated as he was, but who was gainfully making a living through ownership of his own welding workshop. Likely, because of his humble nature, Innovator O's request was accepted. He became among those who used Covid-19-induced lockdowns to learn new skills, in his case a life skill, from which one can earn a good livelihood.
He is now back home, living in his home area, and dreams of establishing a welding workshop for his benefit and also through which he can offer apprenticeships to other young adults in his home area. Innovator O, unfortunately does not have the requisite welding workshop establishment capital, especially so the large sums of money he needs, in order to purchase the necessary machinery.
We ask for and need your help to enable Innovator O’s dream become a reality. And subsequently the dreams of many more young adults from disadvantaged communities of Northern Uganda. For our supporters who have already made a donation, we thank you. We continue to ask more of you. Help us to spread the word to others in your network.Help us to persuade others to make a donation.
Many more young people can follow in the footsteps of Nsubuga and become "smart, educated and honest metal welders"; a profession from which they will be able to earn livelihoods. Please make a donation and help them to become. Thank you!
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