He sits on a wooden chair under the ever-green tree, holding two pairs of sandals . Brian is smiling and feeling happy for the new hand on skills he has acquired from the economic empowerment project funded by Global Youth Mobilization through the Jeneration Agenda.
25 year old Brian has mastered the art of shoe making from this project and he feels empowered and grateful for the opportunity brought to him and other youths in the community. Although Covid-19 left the youths in the community unemployed, Brian says he has benefited a lot from the leather craft shoe making. He says each participant made two to three leather shoe designs, which are easy to make.
“Instead of leaving the Country to go abroad to look for greener pastures, you can embark on shoe making to make money, create job opportunities for other youths because this is where the future of Uganda is heading too”, he narrates.
This project has changed Brian’s mindset where he hopes to make leather craft shoes making his full time job from the acquired skills he learnt.
The covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lock down led to a spike in youth unemployment in the slum areas of Kampala. Thousands of youth who live on day-to-day jobs like hawking, boda boda riding became victims of unemployment, and early marriages because of the closure of schools.
Jeneration Agenda, with support from Global Youth Mobilization is empowering young people to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic with projects like Social and Economic Sustainability among Slum Communities in Namuwongo.
The project was launched last year from August 2021- February 2022, and has set a firm ground to encourage youths to be self employed and self sustainable in the community.
Project Impact
“Through the project, we have trained thirty two youths from the slums of Namuwongo of which fourteen of the beneficiaries got internship placements whereas five have been retained for employment while others are still volunteering at these leather designing workshops,” says Benson Onyango, CEO Jeneration Agenda.
Benson adds, “The youths were trained in Leather designing: i.e. sandals, belts, and wallet making. four of the beneficiaries have since pooled resources together to start their own workshop to create employment for themselves. Of these, twenty five were females while seven were males.”
Today, Brain advises fellow youth to come join them on the hand on skills like shoe making, carpentry as an employment and source of income. “ Youth empowerment through social and Economic Sustainability is the future for Uganda now, you have to be self -employed and make your own money in the community.”
Written by:
Maggie Olore