Our Partners

rotary

The Rotary Club of Lubowa

Since 2014/15, The Rotary Club of Lubowa has committed to care for the young people in Lubowa community through ways that will cause transformation in their lives and inspire them to embrace the vision of Rotary. The most immediate challenges that need attention in the community include, among others:-

  1. High unemployment rate of youths in neighbouring peri-urban communities of Ndejje, Zzana, Nyanama and Seguku. Those aged 18 years and above are expected to be working but many are found in townships gambling and betting. Majority did not acquire formal education and those who did, do not have an extra advantage either, as there are few job opportunities available.
  2. Young people in schools may not have good enough leadership training and mentorship. They may succeed in their academic grades but they still need to learn to lead and how to be led. These additional skill sets are needed now more than ever as young people contend with the less straightforward avenues in job creation presented by growing informal and private sectors.
  3. With the rising use of web-based means of communication, young people are increasingly influenced not by their parents’/ guardians’ beliefs and cultures, but rather by social media. These channels need to be utilized to help children rediscover the absolute truth and respect for values that give their lives meaning.

In 2015, RC Lubowa in collaboration with Mirembe Vocational institute provided support to the Zana youth in business expansion and economic empowerment. Specifically:

  1. Apparel branding and interior decor skills building for commercial production of items such as corporate wear, upholstery and household linens.
  2. Catering and Hospitality services including waitressing, decorating for Rotary Social events such as home hospitalities.
  3. Backyard farming enterprise focusing on Mushroom production

Rotary Club of Lubowa facilitated a business outlet located near the institution premises. The outlet doubled as a small-scale cottage industry through which the centre could raise funds for equipment and operations. In addition the club established a line of contact for students who were keen to provide catering and hospitality services at an affordable fee. Any Fees payable would go towards tuition costs for the girls.

This support was provided within the auspices of the Rotary Vijana Initiative to revolutionize the mindset of the youth in Uganda and prepare them for the tough and competitive world before them. The cottage industry was launched by District Governor Robert Waggwa Nsibirwa on 20th October 2015.

Mirembe Girls Mushroom growing Cottage Industry and apparel branding center supported by RC Lubowa in 2015

Mirembe Vocational institute was home to about 200 girls aged 15-28 years including a number living positively with HIV/AIDs, with their own challenging background and moving testimonies. The institute therefore doubled as a reception center for young women who were distressed and needed counselling and guidance.

Faced with the challenges of COVID-19 like any vocational institute, the routine activities of Mirembe Vocational Centre were interrupted and the continued engagement with the students affected by restrictions on physical/on-site learning. However, the young the women continued to pursue opportunities to keep themselves occupied. It was imperative that the centre devises ways to engage the young girls in alternative non-formal learning activities that will not necessarily demand a full-time presence at the centre but rather ensure that the girls continue to pursue their path towards economic independence and self-sustainability.

Re-Engaging the young women and men at Mirembe Vocational Institute in a solid waste management initiative, Bunamwaya Division, Wakiso District, 2022-23

The community is Bunamwaya division is faced with the typical challenges that any peri-urban town in a developing country would face. Amongst these challenges is the exponential growth in food vending in the nearby markets characterised by small single-person kiosks that sell hot snacks on the roadside. This has become the option for many young people as they try to deal with the increased restrictions and costs that come with doing casual work in the city center. Inevitably, there is a growing concern among the township administration of increased demand for public sanitation facilities but most importantly management of the high volumes of solid waste generated by the food vendors.

The Intervention.

With Vijana Poa seed funding on Global Grant GG2230212, the Rotary and Rotaract Clubs of Lubowa joined hands with well experienced partners Mirembe Vocational Institute to re-engage 30 young men and women in Bunamwaya Division, in an initiative to produce biomass briquettes from organic waste within their immediate communities. The specific intervention was a mindset change training focused on promoting sustainable consumption of organic waste through composting and recycling of byproducts such as food peelings, feathers, natural debris (grass and leaves) to produce biomass briquettes – an energy source for cooking that simultaneously reduces both air pollution and deforestation.

The young men and women were mobilized from the five village cells in Bunamwaya Division.  The coaching and mentoring in mindset change and enterprise development was a tailored 2-week capacity building and knowledge sharing workshop focused on entrepreneurship, community leadership, vocational skills, and financial literacy delivered by a local community-based NGO already doing similar work.  The training also involved a practical component on the whole biomass energy briquettes value chain, including product development, business plan development, production, branding, marketing and promotion.

Demonstration of manual Briquette-process and components: Carbonizer, Crusher, Mixer and Press Machine.

Mirembe Vocational training centre will continue to serve as the business incubation point and will be facilitated with a simple briquette-making machine. During the pilot phase it hosted the trainers and meetings / virtual discussions that were required to deliver the training hence the need to set up a website. Mirembe also hosted the pilot solid waste bank which handled garbage sorting and barter.

The project complemented the Bunamwaya division efforts to stimulate and support the work of community-based small-scale enterprises and facilitate links between formal and informal operations. It equiped young people with natural resource conservation skills for economic gain and promote group formation and behaviour change that contributes to environmentally sustainable living and community development.

Launch of MVIRINGO Project

In October 2023, the Rotary Clubs of Lubowa, Kyengera, e-club of Victoria and Seguku together with two Rotaract clubs of Lubowa and Rubaga will launch a collaborative youth empowerment project “MVIRINGO” which will complement existing solutions to the solid waste management. It will serve as a catalyst and ladder for further innovation and scale up in Makindye Ssabagabo Municipality, which is actively engaged in community-centered mobilization efforts towards smart urban cities.  Building on the foundation laid by the Vijana Poa, Mirembe Vocational Institute will serve as the incubation and training center for the initiative.

“MVIRINGO” is a Swahili term to mean circular and has been applied in the context of this project to amplify its intended contribution to the circular economy. The principal aim of the project to Engage youth in low-income Urban Communities to promote sustainable solid waste management.

The project will initially target school communities and food vendors in five selected urban communities of Bunamwaya Division- Zana, Nfufu, Nankinga, Bunamwaya central and Nyanama. The map (inset) shows the location of the intended target communities in Bunamwaya Division which has a total population of about 106,000 people of which 21% are young people aged 19-35 years.

This project builds on the Rotary Vijana Poa   project and ongoing work by the partnering Rotary and Rotaract clubs. It will build on existing collaborations with a renowned waste management partner Clean Waste ltd, a vocational training institute (Mirembe Girls Vocational School) and a local association of practitioners, the Entebbe Environmental Conservation Association (EECA) with a specific focus on two initiatives:

  1. a) An innovative campaign to educate and inspire young people in schools and their immediate communities to take action on plastics.
  2. b) Promotion of environmentally friendly Biomass products (specifically biomass briquettes) which will be sold as an affordable source of energy for cooking to schools, low-income households and food vendors.

The project provides young people with business development training and consulting to develop their business plans, on a cohort basis. The young entrepreneurs will go through a three-phase incubation program that helps them develop their social business ideas, prototype, test market fit and develop a solid plan to grow their businesses.

The Rotary Clubs will support youth groups and recycling community-based organisations including schools to set up recycling enterprises/waste banks at designated collection centers and increase public awareness in communities about recycling and sustainability. The franchisees (collection centers) will be given support in areas such as logistics, financial management and business planning. They will receive skills training and capacity building in basic business management and site operational procedures, as well as soft skills such as negotiation and collaboration.

In addition, the initiative will constitute informal ‘reclaimers’ into Rotary Community Corps as a way of engaging them formally and ensuring they are recognized, compensated for their work so that they drive community behavior change but also promote community ownership within a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement. This will increase collection rates of recyclable material from households.

The Rotary Clubs will partner with an established and reputable Microfinance Institution to support credit groups established by the youth after they have attended their skills training. The intention is to ensure ownership and replication of the model in the communities where the young people reside.

In the long term, this initiative should contribute to an upgraded town waste management system that is more economically efficient, socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable

HOW TO PARTNER WITH US

Sebumu as an association running mirembe girls has come up with 6 months and 3 months trainings for the many young people who cannot afford 2 year course trainings to enable youths get skills and knowledge for financial sustainability and empowerment.
An individual or organisation can join hands with us in sponsoring church/mosque groups, SACCOS, fellow C.B.O’S youth groups, women and men groups to access such trainings at subsidised costs so that sebumu can reach out to individuals who cannot come to its centre but rather get trainings from their communities.
Organisations/ individuals can also partner with us in our venture to keep the girl – child in school because dropout rates are so high yet these young people get out of school when they are not yet competent in respective skills training.