In April and May this year, our Primary 7 students at our Katuuso Campus participated in the Sawa World program, a locally-led, solutions-focused educational program designed to provide young people living in poverty with the skills and knowledge to start their own small-scale, income generating business using low-cost, eco-friendly materials sourced locally to them.
One of our Primary 7 students learning how to bake a cake with the guidance of a Sawa World Trainer.
Established in 2008 and now operating programs across 12 countries where young people live under the poverty line (under $5 USD/day), Sawa World was developed with the idea that the solutions to poverty lie with the very people who are themselves living within it.
By building their individual capacity and empowering them with the skills and knowledge they need, these vulnerable young people can provide the solution to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, helping to create a more equal, a more sawa (sawa means equal in Swahili), world.
These young people would be the “spark” in their local community to successfully build their own micro-business and igniting a ripple effect of knowledge and skills sharing with other youth in their community.
With a perfect alignment around empowering our young people and building the capacity of our students, Sawa World conducted their 5-week course from April 12th to May 18th at our school in Katuuso, engaging all 38 of our Primary 7 students who learnt how to make African sandals, reusable sanitary pads, bake daddies (Ugandan donuts) and cakes, and cook bagiya (dried noodles) as potential income solutions for their very own business.
Seven School for Life Teachers also received training as part of the program with the main aim to help support and mentor our Primary 7 students as the students discovered ways to set up their own micro-business and start generating income.
During the final week of the program, the parents of our students were welcome to attend the training sessions where they not only had the chance to see what their children were learning, but they also had the opportunity to learn the skills taught on the day. Needless to say, the parents were fascinated by the training their children were receiving and highly receptive to the program.
At the conclusion of the program, follow up calls were conducted by the Sawa World team to a sample group of students see if the skills and training were being applied beyond the 5-week program and if any of our young people had indeed started a successful small business of their own. Out of the 13 students followed up, two had successfully started income generating businesses!
We are thrilled to share two of our success stories here. Igniting the Sawa World spark in their families and communities are Robinah and Richard.
Robinah (pictured left) is 13 years old and attends Katuuso Primary School with her brother and sister. She tells us that she loves going to school because of all the new things she gets to learn. She aspires to become a teacher one day because “teachers are the ones who teach children many skills which we need for our future”.
Among the skills taught during the Sawa World program, Robinah was motivated to start her own business making daddies because she found it was an easy to learn skill and the materials were readily available to her in her local community.
Her parents work at a local shop selling water, snacks and sodas and so they were able to provide Robinah with the financial support she needed to obtain materials and set up her little business. In the process, Robinah has also taught five other family members to make daddies as well. Talk about being a bright spark!
Within a space of two weeks after the training, Robinah was able to earn 20,000 UGX ($5.16 USD) from the daddies that she sold in two different shops.
Richard is also 13 years old and tells us he would like to become an engineer one day.
After learning the skills taught through the Sawa World Program, Richard tried his hand at making reusable sanitary pads and daddies.
The materials for the pads were already available at home and his parents provided him with money to buy other materials for making daddies. Richard gifted the pads he made to his sister and the daddies were eaten as snacks by the family at home.
He is enthusiastic about these skills and hopes to start making them for sale soon, pending the Covid restrictions.
Unfortunately the lockdown in Uganda happened not too long after the training concluded and field visits to further assess the impact of the program on our students who took part were not able to eventuate.
With a strong focus on empowering our students with work ready skills and knowledge, we hope to run future collaborations with Sawa World and further enhance the education and learning we offer to the young people in the communities we operate in.
By sponsoring a child with School for Life, you are helping to bring these wonderful programs to our schools and our students. If you would like to help ignite the spark in the life of a child please consider the gift of a quality education.
Just $52 a month provides everything a primary student needs to receive a quality education - all the tools, materials, resources and access to highly trained and qualified teachers - as well as three nutritious meals every day at school, a school uniform, access to safe, clean drinking water, healthcare and extra-curricular activities, sports and specialised educational programs such as Sawa World training.
We hope to be able to share more in this space soon!
