Empowering Youth

Empowering youth in Kampala’s poorest slum areas

Kawempe Division is the most deprived notorious and densely populated slum area in Kampala capital city estimated to have a population of 90,000 people (According to a recent BRAC report). 82% are surviving with less than $2 USD a day. On average, each household has 3 school-age children. Large numbers of children in Kawempe Division are affected and infected with HIV/AIDS, many are orphaned and over 1,000 girls and women between the ages of 13 and 17 are engaged in the sex trade. A majority of these girls have their first baby at age 15. Literacy is very low, with more than 50% of residents having not attended primary school. About 65% of the population is under the age of 25. Kawempe’s economy is dominated by hawking, motorcycle taxis, food trading, petty crime and sex trade.

Among our activities, VFSD offers HIV/AIDS prevention and reproductive health workshops, trains youth to serve as peer educators, distributes condoms and informational materials,Assitance over 150 orphan and vulnerable children to have their rights to education and and runs an orphanage for 25 children abandoned by young womene sex workers. Recognizing the strong link between HIV/AIDS and poverty. VFSD provides youth with vocational, leadership and entrepnuership skills at VFSD empowerment center to launch small businesses through training and microloans.

Empowering Youth in Kampala’s Poorest Areas is a long term initiative that seeks to provide 100-300 male and female young Ugandans aged 13 – 25 years living in Kawempe slums and other marginalised poorest parts of Kawempe Division (Kampala, Central Uganda). The project will be implemented at the already established vocational training centre; VFSD entrepreneurship empowerment Centre. The centre will provide the intended youth withHIV/AIDS counselling, appropriate tools for employment, and develop career information and skills necessary for their professional development, including developing a supportive network, finding suitable role models, and creating platforms through which constructive dialogue can take place for youth to create and sustain businesses as a means of geting out of poverty and prevent the rise of violent extremist ideology in this vulnerable population.

The beneficiaries will be recruited and trained in 2 cohorts, each lasting 6 months ( 5 months of trainings and 1 month for internship.) They will be trained in vocational skills like- Electrical engineering in (motor rewinding and generator repairing), metal crafts and welding, Graphic art, Hair Dressing, Electrical Installation, Art and crafts, among others.

The project will also provide soft skills on ("how to make it in the contemporary business world") including sessions on how to start and grow your business, how to build and sustain trusting customer relationships, financial literacy and opportunities to social growth. In addition, the project will provide IT trainings to especially young female youth from underprivileged backgrounds, with particular emphasis on how to strategically use ICT (including Internet, new media, Web 2.0 and mobile technology) to market, expand and sustain their business ventures.
At the end of the trainings, VFSD will graduate the trainees, provide a certificate and start up capital either informs of finance or material.