NGO seeks 359m to set up vocational institute in Luwero

PIC: the NGO wants to teach skills so as to fight unemployment

EDUCATION | SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Concern for the Girl Child (CGC), a local non-governmental organisation, seeks $100,000 (about sh359m) to establish a vocational institute in Luwero district.

CGC is a child-focus organisation, whose major purpose is to empower the vulnerable girl child in Uganda.
 
Since its inception in 2001, the organisation has impacted 800 girls through providing access to education and health information.

Speaking during the corporate breakfast meeting at Imperial Royale hotel in Kampala on Friday, the executive director, Catherine Opondo, said establishing a vocational institute in Luwero,  will equip locals with hands-on skills, so they can start up businesses in their home areas, rather than migrate to cities in search of jobs.

She said the institute will offer services like making reusable sanitary pads for sell, nursery school teaching, jam processing, bakery and metal works, among others.

"Many people in Uganda are educated, but do not have any hands on skills, which are critical in the fight against unemployment," Opondo noted.

Ruth Nvumetta Kavuma, the chairperson of the board of governors of CGC, said the organisation already has 10 acres of land in Luwero, where the vocational school and hostels will be constructed.

Dr  Firminus Mugumya, a senior lecturer at Makerere University, said challenges such as  teenage pregnancies, early marriages, child neglect, and maltreatment have intensified in the country because of the weak child protection system in the country.

He said to deal with such problems especially at the grass root levels, there is need to strengthen village leadership, so the communities can address them like it was done in the old days, when children were raised by the whole community.