In one of our partner schools in Wakiso, we meet Lawrence – the star of this short video. He has returned to his former school to give advice and guidance to the current cohort of students, demonstrating just by being there that people who go to this school can go on to be a success.
As well as providing inspiration to the next generation, Lawrence is also present for another fitting reason: he is teaching them how to make a dress. What may seem like an odd addition to an alumni talk is actually the development of an important practical skill that can be used in their personal and professional lives.
WORKING IN WAKISO
As you make your way out of Kampala and into the town of Wakiso, there are many things that may catch your eye.
It could be dozens of bodas (motorcycles) whizzing by, skilfully avoiding potholes and cars stuck in a traffic jam. Your taste buds might direct you to maize and matoke (bananas) being roasted on small charcoal grills. Or maybe your eye could be drawn to the colourful dresses, displayed on mannequins that have a puzzling white complexion with exaggerated curves – a combination that perhaps quite pointedly captures the paradoxes of the contemporary East African economy.
But what ties these images of daily life together are the urban residents of Kampala, who make their living through road-side businesses.
Kampala and Wakiso are just some of the key towns where inhive and Private Education Development Network (PEDN) run alumni programmes with funding from Opportunity International, under the UKAID’s Girls’ Education Challenge grants.
SKILLED UGANDANS
Greater Kampala has an estimated population of four million men and women, who live and work here. Many of them descent daily into the city centre to take advantage of its economic opportunities, whether it be to sell welded metal bed frames or grilled chicken legs on a stick.
As many as 40% of Ugandans still rely on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods and the agricultural sector, especially export of raw, unprocessed products like coffee, remains the motor of the country’s economic growth.
However, the national developmental vision is to support sectors such as agro-processing, manufacturing and services that would improve Ugandans’ wellbeing and increase their quality of life. This plan relies on its people being trained and skilled in vocations, trades and services, which are relevant both to the economy and to the people’s circumstances.
After decades of concerted effort to improve basic education, this is why the attention now shifts towards ensuring high quality training of young people – but this is no easy task, with the education system struggling to make this vision a reality.
ALUMNI’S ROLE IN UGANDA’S FUTURE
In this context, learning how to sew clothes, becomes not just a useful skill for boys and girls to learn, but potentially the pathway to a more successful Ugandan economy. Seeing the road-side butchers, hairdressers and barbers, carpenters and shoe-makers, certainly suggests that vocational skills could bring source of income to the pupils as they grow up.
As the video shows, the pupils are clearly engaged by this more hands-on lesson and Lawrence’s careful explanations help keep a class of well over thirty pupils focused on the task in hand. By the end of the session, a willing but slightly shy student models the newly made dress to the class.
Former students, or alumni, like Lawrence, can help under-resourced schools and overstretched teaching staff with sharing of a whole range of skills, from the very practical ones like using a sewing machine to the ‘softer’ skills like team work or time management.
In this way, we hope that the mannequins you pass by on the streets of Kampala can one day be clothed in dresses that are designed, manufactured, marketed and distributed by the Ugandan youth of today.
