At the Naguru Remand Home in Uganda's capital Kampala, 160 juvenile offenders are being skilled under the Rotary’s Boy Child Uplifting Programme, implemented by the Rotary Club of Upper Kololo.

Here, the young people on remand are on the receiving end of vocational training in the areas of poultry, tailoring, horticulture, packaging and financial literacy.

The club has so far invested sh30 million in the three-year programme that started in July 2023 and is currently completing its first year.

Uganda has seven operational remand homes and one rehabilitation centre with over 95% of the juvenile offenders in the homes being boys aged between 12 and 17.

Elizabeth Mushabe, the Boy Child Up Lift Ambassador talking to some of the remandees at Naguru remand home as other rotarians look on. This was during the fourth selling of chicken by beneficiaries of the Boy Child Uplifting Program implemented by the Rotary Club of Upper Kololo at Naguru remand home.

Many of these are brought for crimes including theft, rape, and murder.

Rehabilitation

Mary Kyomugisha, the Naguru Remand Home senior probation and welfare officer, said that in 2015, the government decided that it is not enough for remand homes to just keep children, take them to court and later reintroduce them to the community.

Rehabilitation was found to be an important ingredient in these homes.

The government therefore introduced the rehabilitation component in remand homes to help children get skills to help them improve their lives.

Speaking during the selling of the poultry products at the Naguru Remand Home on Tuesday this week, Kyomugisha said that previously, rehabilitation and skilling was a preserve of convicts incarcerated at Kampiringisa Rehabilitation Centre.

“Having vocational skills training in remand homes has decreased the number of children sent to Kampiringisa by courts since judges often find the offenders with skills already fit to be re-introduced into society,” she said.

She said skilling remanded juveniles helps them to grow up as responsible and productive citizens.

At Naguru, a remanded juvenile is encouraged to take up a skill of their choice. Poultry and horticulture are popular choices because many say they would find it easy to implement them once they return to their respective communities. 

Kyomugisha said Rotary also helps to link them to the market for their poultry and vegetables. The money helps with the daily running of the remand home as well as boosting the project.

Some released juveniles are given rabbits to get them started back home.

Others are helped to access funds within government programmes such as Emyooga, Youth Livelihood Fund and Parish Development Model.

“We have many testimonies where parents call in to say their children have changed and are helping with the growth of their family livelihoods,” said Kyomugisha.

She said they also work with the government's Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT), which assesses the learners and awards them certificates.

1,300 birds sold

At Naguru on Tuesday, Joyce Odoki Sadoori, the president of the Rotary Club of Upper Kololo, said although they know that the children committed crimes, they want to help them change into responsible citizens.

She said that together with partners like Nutrinova Uganda Limited, they have been providing specialized training and 500 chickens to the beneficiaries for sale and consumption.

“From the programme, the beneficiaries have so far sold 1,300 chickens four times, earning them money to support the work at the home,” said Sadoori.

The Rotary Club has also helped the juveniles get financial literacy and packaging skills, as well as introduced them to different markets.

Their expectation of the skilled juveniles is that they will turn to business — instead of crime — when they return home.

'Neglected boys'

District governor Edward Kakembo Nsubuga (Rotary District 9213) explained that the project moves well in line with both the Rotary International and district 9213's themes of the year which are ‘Creating hope in the world’ and ‘The boy child uplifting programme’, respectively. 

He said as Rotarians in Uganda, they decided to focus on the boy child because the majority of the development partners and the government have focused on uplifting the girl child in the past, leaving the boys unattended to and prone to crime.

“We have a group of neglected boys with low self-esteem and as a result, many find themselves lured into committing crimes like theft, rape and at worst murder," said Nsubuga.

He said they are to work with the gender ministry to intensify skilling of juvenile offenders in all remand homes, with Naguru Remand Home as the model centre.

Nsubuga said the skilling programme helps to preoccupy the remanded juveniles, which in turn helps to keep at bay psychosocial challenges.