Lira, (UG): AmariAtek Foundation, a youth-led organization that focuses on transforming behaviours, on Friday, organized a three-day training boot camp at Lango College focusing on mainly youths who are out of school.
Abeja Linda, a mentor and a facilitator with AmariAtek Foundation (implementing partner) speaking at the training boot camp told the media that the target audience for the training is the out-of-school youth between the age bracket of 16-25.
Ms Abeja said they are currently running a project under the social equity program. The project according to her is focused on helping young people learn how to be social entrepreneurs by identifying problems in their community.
“We are empowering young people to be innovative and create solutions to the problems around them, ” Ms Abeja said.
She added; “They will get mentorship, we are teaching them how to raise resources by themselves, but not spoon-feeding them, How to raise resources amongst themselves like having saving SACCOs and buying shares in their own companies among others.”
In November, Ms Abeja says the youths mentored shall have a competition in Rwanda where the winner will take home a cash prize of USD 5,000.
Junior Achievement Uganda (JAU) is the implementing partner for the project alongside AmariAtek Foundation.
As of today, Ms. Abeja they have reached out to about 7000 out of 10,000 youths, with the project being implemented in the districts of Lira, Gulu City, Mbale, Kampala and Jinja, where at least 80 per cent of the youths are child mothers.
Ruth Angom of Alito camp in Lira city who hails from Youth Alive Group expressed how they will improvise a way forward of rubbish collection with locally made wheelbarrows to solve the problem of uncontrolled dumping of rubbish within the City.
Hon Aduku Carol Gloria, a female councillor representing Lira City West B Ward in the Lura City Council commended several excelling youths who have made it in life for example, Awio Isaac Johnson a scrap dealer who has made an investment due to being focused in life moreover at a youthful age.
She also applauded some of the youth who are minting millions of shillings daily in Lira City.
Lira City Mayor Sam Atul confessed to the youth that he studied in Lira at Lango College but he did not see any computer from senior one to six when they were in school they used to see the likes of Engola Sam as a role model because of some of the good investment they made in life.
Atul advised the youth to spend most of their time and invest in something that can be sold.
The guest speaker of the event was Mr Awio Isaac Commonly known as ‘Awio Scrapt dealer’ who implores the youths to work very hard and at the same time encourages them to be with friends who can add value to their lives only.
Awio discouraged the youths from spending time on social media because it would not be beneficial to them.
According to him, some of the youths have smartphones as their only asset in life though they will not leave any lasting impact or a legacy for them in case they die.
He emphasized goal setting for all the youth out of school and said that he does not have a TV screen in his house saying he makes the news but he doesn’t watch them.
Amariatek’s work is dedicated to helping tweens, teenagers, and youth between the ages of 10 to 35 years.
The Foundation works with teachers, parents, and learners in various programs to provide a holistic, lifelong, and rights-based education for a smooth transition from childhood to adulthood, from education to work, and from unreflective development to responsible and active citizenship.
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