Akampa nurturing innovative ideas to fight unemployment

Youth use plastic bottles filled with sand to improvise as bricks. Photo by Abdulaziizi K. Tumusiime

What you need to know:

Equipping youth. Akampa nurtures growth of different skills and innovative ideas of young people for money gains.

For a second year university student that Johnson “Tanbull” Akampa is, one would expect him to be solely concerned with his studies and posturing to live life on the fantasy lane.

Instead, he is more passionate about promoting innovation among the youths as a way to overcoming the cancer of unemployment.

“The youths should bring about the change they desire, if the government is taking long,” he says. “If the government is not creating jobs, then the youth should brainstorm how to create jobs for themselves.”

The 25-year-old is not only talking the talk; but he has also walked the talk. He is the founder of Youth Advocacy Foundation Uganda (YAFU), an organisation that brings together youths to nurture and facilitate the growth of different skills and innovative ideas. The urge to set up YAFU was conceived in 2011 at the end of the National Skills Development expo held at Nakasero Primary School in Kampala.

Construction industry
Three years down the road, YAFU is spearheading a bold but young change in the construction industry.
“One of the youths came up with the idea of using empty bottles to replace bricks. We collect these bottles, fill them with sand and use them as bricks,” explains the Bachelor of Development Studies student.

He applauds this idea as environment friendly and cost-effective.

A pilot project is underway in Mpigi District, where cottages and houses are being constructed using the bottles, to demonstrate the feasibility of the idea.

Other ideas that are already being implemented by the YAFU youths include; using rags to make carpets and mats, and making jewelry. Other ideas are still in the pipeline.

This list entails using egg shells to make tiles and exploiting boxes to generate solar power.

To attract more youths to his cause, Akampa partnered with a couple of other youth oriented organisations such as ‘Kankobe children’ and ‘Jangu’ to form the Social Innovation Academy (SINA).
“We take up youths from organisations we partner with and equip them with skills to deter them from lamenting about unemployment,” he says.

The partnership has been up for a year and has more than 50 members. These constitute trainers and students.

Akampa’s journey, however, has been laden with some challenges. “It is not easy to keep the young people motivated. Since we operate on a stringent budget, there are times when we do not have funds for, say their transport.

So, we are challenged to keep their spirits high amidst such a situation,” he states.

In the next five years, he sees SINA developing to the magnitude of minimising the country’s unemployment challenge.