The first lockdown was hard, but this second lockdown due to the second wave of Covid-19 in Uganda has been even more harder for the majority unskilled, semi-skilled and unemployed young people.
Given that over 75% of the Uganda's population are youth aged between 18 years and 30 years of which 85% of this age bracket are unemployed, the two lockdowns lockdowns Uganda has undergone as a measure to stop the spread of all Covid-19 variants, have negatively effected the progress of the young people who been trying to establish their own enterprises and become financially independent.
As Youth With A Vision, before the second lockdown, we had enrolled new youth and at the same time started on stimulation of enterprises that we had helped youth to start but collapsed during the first lockdown. The stimulation of the already shuttered enterprises had started yielding results which have again been shuttered by the second lockdown. Youth had invested invested all the capital and stimulus money to start and rejuvenate their enterprises, with hope of becoming self sustainable.
However, these two months of the second lockdown, have forced all enterprises that had started to flourish back to square one. Owners of these enterprises have just been staying home without working or earning an income to pay their house rent and buy other needs. They have been struggling to get daily food because even the little money they had been left with, they spent it during the first weeks of this second lockdown.
If it wasn't for your generous support, we would not have been able to reach and motivate many unemployed young people and many of them would have ended up committing crime including stealing and abusing drugs for survival.
Everyday we come face to face with young people who lost their employment due to Covid-19 and are in great need of food, essentials, motivation and resources to get back on their feet. Most of these youth are already parents with families to take care.
We have used your generous donations to provide business planning and management skills and prepared 10 youth to establish or stimulate their enterprises when funds become available. We have provided food relief containing 5Kg of maize flour, 5Kg of Rice, 2Kg of sugar, 2Kg of beans, and 1 Littre of liquid soap for a sanitizer, and helped over 56 youth who are at risk of hunger to improve on their family's feeding and sanitation during during the month of July 2021.
It is still a hard situation for most young people in Uganda. Even though the government is easing the lockdown and allowing some businesses entities to open, there are other businesses including markets where most of the youth work have remained closed since the first lockdown. Our hope is that circumstances surrounding the pandemic will improve and eventually allow for total lift of the lockdown so that we can effectively facilitate the employability of young people to become financially independent and be able to meet their basic needs especially food. Otherwise, many young people still want our doors open for them to survive.
Hear this story from one of beneficiaries of our Youth Finance Scheme.
“Hello!
The capital and all support I received from Youth With A Vision in November 2020 had helped me to boost my Drug Shop Business. And I was very hopeful, but since this June 2021 second lockdown my Drug Shop business has come to a standstill and it is nolonger operation as it before because I hardly receive a customer as it appears almost everyone is moneyless now.
I had started serving many people but as of now, it has started collapsing because I receive three to four patients a day. I have to buy food and other family needs, pay house rent, pay tax and at the same time payback my loan which has given me hard times during the lockdown. My husband is at home, not working so I am the only source of income for our family. I do not admit patients because they now go to government hospitals due to a lack of money to get treatment from clinics and private hospitals and the government did not consider us as people who needed support from the Covid Relief. However, now that the government is easing the second lockdown and some businesses have been allowed to open, I have hope that my drug shop will get back on track and improve with time.
Thank you very much so much for all the food, and support you have given me through this second wave of COVID 19.” Says Mary Namugenyi.
Having heard what is currently happening in Uganda, it is a clear manifestation that there is still a lot we can do together to support the majority young people who are aspiring to enter the labour market in a country where the economy has melted down.
Therefore, we call upon you dear friends and supporters to contribute to our Youth Finance Scheme so that we can continue empowering the unemployed young people to start their small enterprises and become financially independent.
Would you like to gift young people with employment opportunities or to learn more about the Youth Finance Scheme?
Here is the link to our website where you get more information about the scheme, beneficiaries and how it works.
We appreciate all your support and donations towards the Youth Finance Scheme.
Thank you very much.
May God bless you.
Happy New Month of August 2021
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