According to the National Planning Authority (2017), 87% of graduates in Uganda do not find jobs.Seven hundred thousand people join the job market every year, but only ninety thousand get something to do and even those are underemployed. The graduates are knowledgeable but unskilled, and it is from this basis that employers do not find them relevant in the working environment.
Another Hope Children’s Ministries needed to make a difference in Uganda through skills development in children and young adults by introducing them to courses like Hair Dressing and Cosmetology, Tailoring, Fashion and Design, Carpentry and Joinery and Catering and Hotel Management. All these and many more are hands-on and thus learn a lot through engaging themselves in practical activities.
Many of our children are now employed and striving to self-sustenance. Our efforts as an organization, sponsors and donors are appreciated when these children are living a better life and not being vulnerable like they used to be before joining our sponsorship program.
In 2007, I joined AHCM when I was 9 and in primary three. After my four years of high school, I joined the vocational school. I was trained in Hotel Management and Catering at Cosgwell School of Beauty, Art and Design and attained a certificate from there. I currently work at Quincy Bites as a manager and chef. We specifically do pastry but also bake cakes. I am currently the Administrator at Quincy Bites. With all the responsibilities, comes a salary which I am using to make myself better; from the vulnerable child I was many years ago, into a self-made lady.
Learning this skill opened my mind to the idea of starting my own business plus getting me exposed to the world of work. Given my age, these are my skills which are keeping me at the job here because I went through many workshops
In the near future, I plan to start up my own coffee shop, and it is where I want to go in the future”. My sponsors from when I was 9, Paul and Mary Harrison, and later Tim and Emma Fletcher ,when my education become more expensive, I will forever be grateful for them.