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Category Archives: Livelihood

Over 400 Out-school Girls in Mukono district get Skills, Business start-up kits after Covid-19

Over 400 Out-school Girls in Mukono district get Skills, Business start-up kits after Covid-19

An event to Release a group of girls who have spent the last 2 years in Mukono district – Uganda, receiving training and skills development. The girls who had acquired different life skills, such as bakery, tailoring, hairstyling, etc., received various startup kits during the event to enhance their capital needs.

The beneficiaries together with their parents/guardians were appreciative of the efforts of all the partners, district /sub-county fraternity and donors for the financial and moral support that enabled them to be trained with skills geared towards empowering them economically and grooming them to face the future. They were able to showcase some of the products they made including; bags, clothing, and various bakery products among others.

District dignitaries who graced the occasion included the Senior community development officer, Chairperson LC5, and the Deputy Resident District Commissioner all of whom encouraged the trainees to work hard to change their lives and that of their families.

The guest of honor Fatumah Ndisaba (Resident District Commissioner – Mukono) in her speech appreciated APPCO and its partners for the great work the organization is doing in the community and for committing resources to support such a group of vulnerable youth. She encouraged APPCO and its implementing partners to always knock at her office when in need of support and linkages for the sustainability of the project. She called on the girls to utilize the skills acquired for their benefit and promised to support them in accessing any development funding including Emyoga that the district receives to support hard-working and organized youth.

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“You need to be relevant and build businesses that will be helpful and supportive to you especially those with ambitions of furthering their education . . . educating a woman means educating a nation.
Fatumah Ndisaba
RDC - Mukono District

Supporting Parents With Agricultural Inputs Within The ECD Communities

Supporting Parents With Agricultural Inputs Within The ECD Communities

To promote positive livelihood and nutrition for children and communities hosting the ECD program in the Lamwo district, APPCO introduced an initiative to supply parents with agricultural inputs. This was meant to enhance the feeding program within the ECD schools.

SCHOOL FEEDING:

The school feeding program is one of the programs that had not ever existed in some of the ECD centres at the time that APPCO started implementing the project which was identified during the re-assessment of schools for the re-opening.

However, through parent participation in meetings and community discussions, a strategy for supporting the school food program was developed. Parents were asked to contribute to the campaign through an action plan. Some of the supplies donated by the parents included maize flour and sugar for porridge. This made it easy to kick start the feeding program. Because the parents championed the effort and demonstrated a willingness to support the program, APPCO provided support to them, including agriculture inputs and technical experience, to address the feeding program as well as to improve the family’s economic condition.

SEED DISTRIBUTION

As the farming season began, parents were overjoyed when they receives the seeds. The seeds were delivered to parent support groups in the communities to help them increase their income-generating capacity at the family level while simultaneously providing a long-term solution to the ECD centre feeding problem.

“Now that APPCO has supported us with seeds, we assure you that in the coming terms, our children will be having porridge and lunch at school as it will also help us to concentrate in the gardens as it was previously hard because we could leave gardens early to go and prepare food for our children.” One parent stated during seed distribution in Aoi ECD centre. Over 500 homes have benefited from the agricultural seeds support, which included introducing parents to new ways of smart agriculture, such as the use of nursery beds and kitchen gardens to increase the productivity of their produce.

Empowered to become an Entrepreneur

Empowered to become an Entrepreneur

Meet Munyunyu Brenda, a senior 3 student at St. Johns Namuyenje, in 2020 she moved from Busia where her parents are based, and came to live with her elder brother in Mukono District where she met the opportunity to obtain baking skills that she is currently practicing.

“ At the beginning of the AGE  project, we were invited for dialogues together with our parents, guardians, and peers and told the objectives of the project among which was to help skill the vulnerable girls for socio-economic transformation in the face of Covid-19 in Mukono district, I was among the many girls who participated in the on-going skilling sessions and was able to benefit in various ways, given that we have been in the lockdown and we have been staying home for a while, I would always allocate my time well and make sure that I seek permission from my brother to come to attend the skilling sessions at the safe space in Namuyenje.

I always practice what we would be taught at the safe space and that’s how a few months back I started my small business of baking, I make snacks and sell to people within our trading center and that is how I manage to purchase scholastic materials that I use at school. At the resumption of school learning, all I asked my brother to do was pay school fees since I had saved some money that would help in meeting other school-related costs from my snacks business.

And as I speak today my business venture is growing since, I have continued baking and selling the snacks at the school canteen something that has earned me the nickname “Munyunyu snacks” among my peers in school funny it is but not deterrent of my goal which is to be the largest baker in our trading center here. I am happy though that I have been able to inspire many young girls in our community and school who have also embraced the idea of engaging in income-generating practices as I do, now that we are being trained in various skills courtesy of this intervention.

Munyunyu and her peer are among the many girls who have and are currently benefiting out of the AGE project interventions being implemented by APPCO and cluster partners in the Mukono district as a response to the COVID-19 inflicted challenges and aims at contributing to the empowerment of girls in and out of school with SRHR and socio-economic friendly services