Skill centre turning around the plight of vulnerable children 

Some of the youth receive their certificates after training at  Excel Hort Consult Agribusiness Centre in Mbarara City. PHOTO | RAJAB  MUKOMBOZI

In 2017, Prof Alex Ariho and  his wife Ms Grace Bazitire started a talent and skills development unit at Excel Hort Consult Agribusiness Incubation Centre, in Biharwe, Mbarara City. The couple has now restored hope touching lives of  the needy and disadvantaged children, especially school dropouts. 

Before the initiative, Ms Bazitire resigned her job as human resource officer at Posta Uganda to pursue a calling where her heart found comfort, which is to look after the disadvantaged children. Prof Ariho was then director general of the agribusiness incubation centre.

Inspiration

Ms Bazitire’s inspiration was her childhood environment in which gender discrimination and poverty thrived and left most young people hopeless.

“Growing up in Bushenyi, young girls were marginalised. By the time I completed Primary Seven, 50 percent of  my female classmates had dropped out of school and almost same story at O-Level where close 30 percent had also dropped out,” explains Ms Bazitire.

She adds that for some,their brilliance survived because a girl repeating a class was an automatic way of leaving school.

Ms Bazitire also notes that girls were vulnerable were because of culture that pitted boys on top of girls, and poverty.

“Culture then, was that boys were given priority in everything. A girl child would be asked to leave school to ‘let’ boys continue. If you performed poorly in class there was no compromise, you will be automatically out of school,” explains Ms Bazitire but quickly she adds that as she grew up she realised boy children were not equally better than girls.

After graduating at Uganda College of Commerce, Kabale, she worked at Amref in the department of reproductive health where she interacted with street children, teenage mothers and prostitutes.

“In my stint, I realised that boys too faced many challenges as girls ranging from poverty, social injustices such as child abuse, neglect and domestic violence,” Ms Bazitire relates. Thus, the idea of working to uplift all disadvantaged children.

Mutual idea

Prof Ariho explains that when his wife brought an idea of working towards giving hope to disadvantaged young people he never gave it a second thought, but to fully support her.

“Our idea to start Excel Agribusiness Incubation Centre was to uplift the young generation and other marginalised groups in society such as women, people with disabilities to get the necessary skills to get employed and employ themselves for sustainable development. My wife was resigning her well-paying jobs told me of the idea and needed my support,” says Prof Ariho.

He gave his wife space at Excel Hort Consult Agribusiness Centre and looking after disadvantaged children has become a family norm.

“We do not earn anything from this and my children have become part of the trainers of the vulnerable young people,”  explains Prof Ariho.

The activities

At the centre, youngsters are skilled in different fields including bakery and confectionery, fashion and design, crop and livestock, value addition, hairdressing plus business management skills.

Ms Angella Asiimwe, 18, a resident of Rwebishuri in Kakiika Mbarara City North Division dropped out of school in Primary Six.

“My aunt brought me from our village in Ntungamo Municipality after the death of my father and promised to pay my tuition, but after Primary Six she said she could no longer afford the tuition. She told me to look for a job, but I could not find any and instead she took me to work at her friend’s bar,” explains Asiimwe.

After spending a few weeks at the bar, one of our clients advised me to go to Excel centre and explain my plight because they equip young people with hands-on skills.

“I did as advised and I was admitted to the facility. I have since learnt several skills including fashion and design and bakery. I will use these skills to start my own business,” explains Ms Asiimwe.

Ms Edith Besiime, 19, a young mother, dropped out of school and deserted their home at the age of 17 because of domestic violence.

“My stepmother tortured me so much that I could no longer stand home. I worked in bars and got pregnant. Our district councillor brought me here with my child. I have learnt bakery, tailoring and soap making. I hope to start a business,” Ms Besiime says.

Sustainability 

Ms Bazitire admits that skilling these children is an expensive undertaking but through writing proposals and other groups of people who appreciate their mission, they have attracted a number of partners who are willing to support their work.

“Most of these young people’s families cannot afford basics, others who fall pregnant can neither return to their partners nor to their parents. So, we have to feed and take care of them,” she explains.

She identified some  of the partners such as Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT), USAID, Private Sector Foundation Uganda, Ministry of Education, Uganda Business and Technical Examination and Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI).

“For example, UIRI recently gave me tailoring equipment worth more than Shs120m,” says Mr Bazitire and USAID is going to facilitate training more than 1,000 young people in different skills this year.

She adds that through partnerships with DIT, they assess students and award them certificates.   

Commendation

Prof Charles Kwesiga, UIRI executive director, explains the centre is doing exceptional work for  transforming communities in the country.

“As UIRI we treasure hands-on skills, not only to have highly skilled human resource but also resources that are innovative. So, we continue to support government and private institutions committed to this cause of offering hands-on skills,” says Prof Kwesiga.