Alexandra Kraszkiewicz from Cultures of the World foundation talks to one of the youth leaders at Bwaise Youth Employment Center.
Sports betting and gambling are fast becoming a serious challenge to youth employment in Kampala City since majority of losers in betting resort to crime including robbing and hitting people with iron bars.
A scheme funded by the United States embassy in Kampala aimed at empowering youth to find practical employment found out that most youth in Bwaise, a city slum with some of the poorest jobless youth had resorted to betting and gambling, which in the long run has led to increased crime in the area.
Majority of the youth and others engaged in disguised employment are said to be involved in robbing and hitting people with iron bars at night after losing the little cash in betting and gambling.
Action For Fundamental Change and Development (AFFCAD), a community-based organization set up by four youth in Bwaise to create jobs for their peers said for the last nine months they had mobilized 620 youth including idlers, jobless, gamblers, chapatti makers, prostitutes and school dropouts and trained them in both soft and hard practical skills jobs.
The founders who were also jobless include Jaffar Nyombi, Meddie Kisirisa, Richard Kafuuma and Brian Mugagga set up a training center called Bwaise Youth Employment Center with an aim of ‘engaging youth in Kampala’s poorest areas.
Nyombi said it was a hard task to persuade their peers to abandon betting and the sex workers to come out in the open to get free training at the center.
He said they recruited 238 between the ages of 16 and 25 who got trained in art and local crafts, tailoring and fashion design, hair dressing and cosmetology, graphic design, photography and video editing and electrical and electronic repair.
Some of the founders, facilitators and trainees of the Bwaise Youth Employment Center at their School.
“Some would lose interest in learning and drop out while others would steal items from the center and from peers. Facilitators also found it hard to convince them that they would find jobs soon after their course,” Kafuuma said.
The youth founders thanked the US embassy for helping their peers and appealed to government to start funding the center with the aim of reducing crime and unemployment.
Nyombi said they needed to help graduates who could not find immediate employment with startup capital so that they can form small groups and start operating from their homes.
The US embassy has also sensitized the youth in the fight against HIV/Aids.
The youth also support about 200 orphans and needy children to get primary education in Bwaise and 50 students get secondary education.
24-year old Sulaiman Hashim a former brick maker in Bwaise said after the four-month training at the center, he got a job with the Uganda Telecom and was later appointed as a team leader.
“I encourage my fellow youth to utilize this chance to get free training because I had lost hope but I’m now a big person where I work,” he said.
25-year old Rashid Muhammad from Kyebando said he was vending belts but joined the center and trained in graphic design and was getting fortune from designing and making posters, business cards and certificates, among other things.
“I can no longer vend belts because I earn far better than before because of my skills,” he said.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/661073-us-embassy-empowers-kampala-youth.html
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