Helping to enhance youth innovation – Daily Monitor

We also get in contact with vulnerable youth through open and online application. All the applicants and referrals are subjected to a day-long cocktail of activities through which we understand their characters, motivation and background. It’s from this stage that we select those we retain for skilling.

How many have you been able to train so far?
We have three camps, one in Mpigi and the others in Nakivale Refugee Camp and Bidibidi Refugee Camp. From the three sites, we have been able to train a combined total of 270 youth.
We are also in the process of opening another community site in Nsambya, Kampala.

And how do you as SINA benefit from all this?
Our aim is to unbundle youth potential and to support them to become self-sustaining. We are partly donor-funded and it is through this funding that we have been able to skill as well as fund the establishment of some enterprises. Sincerely, our satisfaction is delivered from seeing our youth start an enterprise that can employ one or two Ugandans.

This seems to be a big responsibility. How much do you spend on each youth?
It depends. At least on average, every youth gets one and a half years of training. However, there are those that need more than one and half years. For instance, on the Mpigi site alone, we have an annual budget of $50,000 (Shs185m). But in refugee camps, the average we spend is about Shs3m per month.

Which are some of the challenges you encounter in running this academy?
There is always a lot of mindset challenge. For instance, many people in Uganda have this belief that if I have not gone to a university it is the end of the road.

Some people we have previously helped had may be studied something at a certain point. So they have this belief that they have arrived.