By Mathew Yawe, Executive Director
Spring 2019 Newsletter

BackGround

The Mityana Open Troop Foundation was started in 1997 by a group of Boy Scouts who had been affected by socio-economic issues leading to their dropping out of school. Others had been affected by HIV/AIDS due to loss of their relatives and guardians. The initiative started as a community program by raising awareness of the HIV/AIDS scourge. We held talk shows on health. We promoted environmental protection, child nutrition in risky communities, food security, support and education to vulnerable people, and functional adult learning among those who cannot read.

The high school drop-out rate caused by socio-economic factors and the nature of the Ugandan education system, which emphasizes theory, resulted in a high youth unemployment rate: 64%. Crime rates among youths in Uganda, specifically in the Mityana area, were high.

Because of these concerns, our organization started a Vocational Skill Training project in 2007 to recruit vulnerable youths. With support from partner organizations in the U.K., we started working with parents and other members of the community to mobilize unemployed youths in Mityana who had interests in acquiring vocational skills. We recruited school dropouts who didn’t complete their studies because they couldn’t afford school fees. We recruited girls who dropped out of school due to unwanted pregnancies. We also advocated for girls who were sex workers to abandon that activity and join our project. The project is currently recruiting single mothers and disadvantaged youths to be trained in:

• tailoring, designing, and fashion
• hair dressing, beauty, and weaving
• carpentry and joinery
• motor vehicle mechanics (parts 1, 2, and 3)
• crop and agriculture skills
• languages (English and Luganda), writing, speaking and
  algebra

Each course takes 2 years. At graduation, trainees are awarded certificates along with start-up tools or sewing machines to enable them to go into the market and start their own businesses.

Mission

Empower marginalized vulnerable youths, orphans, and women through vocational skills acquisition and promoting better standards of living.

Aim

To reduce unemployment and over dependency among the marginalized groups of people.

Objectives

Mityana Open Troop Foundation aims at achieving the following objectives:

• Create community awareness on sexually transmitted infections.
• Create a conducive educational atmosphere by fully equipping the vocational project with all the necessary training tools/machines along with working materials.
• Help vulnerable children attain education by sponsorship and scholastic material support.
• Develop, promote, and educate children about nutrition.
• Construct shelters for the poor, elderly, widows, and orphans.
• Provide start-up tools to all who graduate from our program, to enable them to start their own businesses.

Achievements

• During the training period of January – April 2019, we recruited 85 new trainees, for a current total of 112. In November 2018, 71 trainees graduated and left a big gap at the training centre!
• Sewing Peace, our sewing machine partner, managed to approach The Dewan Foundation and asked them to kindly sponsor the shipping of 2 pallets to our Vocational Project in Uganda.
• The project has conducted training in all the courses mentioned above.
• Project trainees participated in athletic competitions and did well.
• Project trainees participated in a debate on the topic, “How can one overcome AIDS?”
• Project trainees together with scouts volunteered in clearing brush
  around the well that is the village water source.
• The project with support of Mr. Nino Ardizzi and Ms. Madison Ardizzi of Canada began construction of a wooden poultry house, where trainees will learn poultry farming, though the house has not yet been roofed and completed.

Appreciations

• Many thanks go to Sewing Peace, for donating us nice sewing machines, which have really made a great change in our communities and made possible the sewing training workshop at our project. Initially the machine-to-student ratio was 1 to 5 trainees; now each trainee has a machine. We praise Mr. David Schwiedenback for always caring for our project. We also thank all volunteers involved in refurbishing the sewing machines and the sewing machine donors.
• We extend many thanks to The Dewan Foundation for having kindly funded the shipping of sewing machine pallets to our vocational project in Uganda. Please continue with your kind spirit; we appreciate your great care.
• The project extends many thanks to Mr. Nino Ardizzi and Ms. Madison of Canada for supporting us in constructing a poultry house, though it is not yet completed.
• We thank the Government of Uganda, through its Ministry of Education and Sports, for always sponsoring 50 disadvantaged youths at our vocational project.
• Thanks go to Kolping Mityana Womens project, which sponsors some 15 orphans at our vocational project. The funds from the Ugandan Government and from Kolping have supported paying the instructors and providing meals for our trainees.

Challenges

• Insufficient classroom space has Very Very much affected our programs, as we must sometimes train outside, where it is not safe when it rains and where it can be extremely hot. Lack of classroom space also forces us to limit the number of trainees who can enroll in our programs.
• We charge little tuition for our training, but unfortunately some still cannot afford it! As a result, the project sometimes cannot pay instructors on time or provide meals for trainees.
• It is a challenge for us to pay shipping costs and Ugandan import fees for the sewing machines donated to us by Sewing Peace.

Future Plan / Way Forward

• Construct a 2-classroom block to accommodate all potential trainees.
• Continue to get sewing machines shipments from Sewing Peace.
• Partner with and visit other U.S., Canadian, U.K., and other organizations and other vocational training programs to learn how they operate and how they sustain their institutions.

Conclusion

On behalf of the Mityana Open Troop Foundation, I conclude by thanking once again whoever has supported us financially and in-kind, and those who have worked tirelessly towards the development of our project. Thank you very much.

Carolyn Colella of GlobeWater & Solar (GWS) of Princeton, New Jersey, just contacted us regarding a water project in Soroti, Uganda. GWS developed a solar-powered water pump that they plan to ship to Soroti.

During the planning of the water project, Andrew Auruku, the GWS contact in Uganda, mentioned that he needed a couple of sewing machines. There is a pressing need in the community for someone to be able to produce sanitary pads for women.

Carolyn had heard of Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace. She called us and asked if we could help get a couple of sewing machines for Andrew.

Uganda is a landlocked country. Shipping anything there is not only super expensive; it’s also extremely difficult. It’s expensive because of ocean shipping, overland shipping that costs even more, and import taxes and fees. It’s difficult because of logistical and bureaucratic overhead.

By incredible good fortune, Sewing Peace has a partner in Uganda, the Open Troop Foundation in Mityana, which is about 300 miles from Soroti — not terribly close in terms of Ugandan travel but a lot closer than New Jersey! We contacted Mathew Yawe, our contact in Mityana, and asked him if he still had some sewing machines available from the last shipment. He did!

We put Mathew in touch with Carolyn from GWS. She arranged for the transportation costs and then put Matthew in contact with Andrew in Soroti. Mathew arranged to have two sewing machines and a step-down converter delivered to Soroti by bus the next day. Another win-win!

[Our latest news from Mathew in Uganda is this report on the graduation ceremony of 18 November 2018.]