Young people in Yumbe and Terego districts are learning to rely on themselves after acquiring vocational skills from a project established by in 2016.
According to Mr Alfred Lodule, a refugee at Ariwa 3 settlement in Rhino camp, Terego, access to necessities was a tag of war.
“We had been depending mainly on food rations from the World Food Programme but getting other necessities was a problem. I had a plan of continuing with education but I could not proceed due to lack of resources,” he said.
Mr Lodule then seized an opportunity to be a part of a program by Welthungerhilfe, an NGO operating in the settlement, after they has placed adverts asking youth to enroll for skilling.
Today, he earns Ugx 25,000 daily from tasks like roofing, fixing doors, windows and making furniture.
Ms Harriet Awinjeru, 28, another beneficiary who pursued tailoring and garment cutting course at Siripi Skills Training Centre in 2016, is grateful for the support, because it saved her from fetching water and selling firewood for money.
But upon completing the training, Ms Awinjeru was given a sewing machine as a start-up kit.
“I began working on torn clothes while saving some money. I did this for about a month until I had saved enough money to buy materials such as clothes and rolls,” she added.
Ms Awinjeru earns at least Shs30,000 daily depending on the clients’ demands.
Mr Hamidu Adiga, 32, from Yumbe, who completed training in 2018, said after his graduation, he was given start-up and established a workshop at Siripi Trading Centre.
After selling two goats to raise startup capital, he started from humble beginnings and built a Ugx 400,000-500,000 monthly income business.
“I have bought my own tools and employed about five youth. I have also opened a shop in Yumbe,” he said.
In his speech during the fourth graduation at Siripi Training Centre on Monday, Mr Jamal Abdi, the Yumbe senior education officer, said improving access to education and training is key.
“The biggest challenge is completing the circle, whether it is primary, secondary or tertiary level. We are enrolling many learners in different sub-sectors of education but what happens to those who don’t complete the circle? ” he wondered.
Mr Abdulmutwalib Asiku, the Yumbe chairperson, advised youth to embrace vocational training.
“The best engineers are not those who go to universities after completing S.6 but those who start from certificate level maybe after P.7 and continue advancing. When you look at the population of the young people in West Nile region, there’s a lot of redundancy,” he said.
Welthungerhilfe, an NGO, with funding from German Cooperation started implementing a project in skills development in 2016 at Siripi Youth Development Skills Centre in Terego.
Mainly targeting youth between 15 and 30 years who have basic reading and writing skills and have dropped out of school, the organization provides free training but learners are required to pay a commitment fee of Shs20,000 and meet their accommodation fees.