KAMPALA - The European Union Delegation (EUD) to Uganda has urged the Police and slum communities in Kampala to uphold the achievements of the just-ended social cohesion project to promote dialogue.

The call was made by the Patricia Stephenson, the EUD governance and human rights programme officer at the closure a four-year project dubbed strengthening social cohesion and stability in slum populations (SSCoS).

Patricia hailed the achievements in vocational education and employment, anti-radicalization messaging, civic awareness on service provision and community relations, as well as support to security and Government agencies.

“International organization for Migration (IOM) worked with Police to develop a training curriculum around prevention of violent extremism,” she said.

Over 200 police officers were trained and the curriculum will be handed over to Police for inclusion in their standard police training course.

“As we look to the coming months and of course the election period, I would expect that the gains achieved by this project in relation to the constructive and positive dialogue between community leaders, youth and Police, will be maintained by all stakeholders and that they continue to build on the successes to promote dialogue within communities.”

The call follows violence that marred National Resistance Movement (NRM) internal party primaries for MPs that has resulted in 370 petitions seeking cancellation of results.

Speaking about the achievements, project manager Sahra Farah said 1,048 youth had received vocational education; 122 got employment; 667 got small business start-up capital, leading to the creation of 896 jobs, as well as sensitization of more than 125,000 community members on radicalization and violent extremism.

The project was funded by the European Union Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) with 4.3 million euros since August 2016.

It was implemented by the IOM, together with partners such as the Bwaise-based organization AFFCAD, Uganda Police Force, Kampala Capital City Authority, KiBO Foundation and ACTogether.

The closing event was addressed by representatives of implementing partners, who commended the project’s impact. They included Nakawa Mayor Ronald Balimwezo, Senior Police Commissioner David Wasswa, one of the AFFCAD founders Jaffar Nyombi, officials from Enterprise Uganda and ACTogether, and several beneficiaries, who gave testimonies of how their lives have been changed.

“I used to wake up and say, ‘let me go and look for some money’. Now I wake up and go to my workplace. I wait for customers, they come and I serve them,” said Emmanuel Ngobi from Kabalagala.

Kawanda-based tailoring graduate Bashir Hamba, one of the beneficiaries making face masks, spoke of his journey from despair, through vocational training at AFFCAD and small business start-up support, to a proud fashion designer helping to fight COVID-19.

In his remarks, IOM Uganda Chief of mission Sanusi Tejan Savage thanked the European Union for the funding and support, the IOM team and implementing partners for their hard work, and urged the slum communities to build on the project achievements.

He explained that the project had tested a whole-of-society approach to building socially-cohesive and stable communities.

“And the logic of change was not difficult to see. With the majority of young people in informal settlements starved of opportunities, they can easily get radicalized and end up as violent criminals. The project has worked hard to ensure that slums become not hotbeds of crime, but nursery beds of hope, determination and innovation,” Abdi said.

Savage was optimistic that the outcomes of the project will live on and grow for many years.