Nyakwezi wants a better world for less privileged youth

Nyakwezi, who, despite coming from a middle class family, is preoccupied with making the world a better place for the less privileged youth.

She believes this generation is the future of the country.

Reaching out

Two years ago, Nyakwezi developed a passion for improving the lives of teenage mothers and school dropouts who can hardly find decent jobs.

She runs Daughters of Love Foundation, a charity through which she empowers teenage mothers with skills to improve their livelihoods.

These skills include urban farming, making briquettes, marketing and digital skills, among others.

She calls it a "youth-led youth enterprise".

"It hurts seeing idle youth and young mothers living in dire conditions. I am obliged to share the little I have with them to better their lives," she says.

Her concept is about creating youth leaders, who she supports and mentors and these in turn impart the same to others.

The gist is empowering youth to be self-reliant by hand-holding them to becoming self-sufficient entrepreneurs.

Nyakwezi, a student in Year 11 at Aga Khan High International School, believes that considering the rate at which the world is revolving, the less privileged youth should be helped to be able to live meaningful lives in future.

"If we work hard and slowly build the foundation of our country, we shall be guaranteed a better Uganda," she says.

Nyakwezi does all the work during her school break. Now that she is a candidate, she links up with her beneficiaries on WhatsApp and via phone calls.

Starting out

The foundation was started by Nyakwezi's mother, Elizabeth Rumanyika, and grandmother, Vincent Kasenene, in 2018. However, last year, Nyakwezi took over its stewardship.

"I was registered as a director, but I was very busy with my studies at Gayaza High School," she recalls.

Last year, she joined Aga Khan School, which she says is more flexible, given its international curriculum.

The eye-opener

The youth conference that Nyakwezi attended at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa in January 2019 turned everything around for her.

She realised that most Ugandan youth were lagging behind in terms of entrepreneurship, public speaking, philanthropy, interactive and research skills.

"I was shocked by how my age mates from developed countries were ahead of me in terms of confidence and drive. It was an eye-opener," she says.

"The facilitators told us that it is us to make Africa beautiful, for us and our parents. They also took us through the history of developed countries, showing that their generations worked so hard," she says of the four-day conference.

Self-discovery

Upon her return home, Nyakwezi took off a few weeks to discover who she really is. She reflected on the things she is grateful for and how she interacts with people.

"You cannot change the world if you do not know who you are," she says philosophically.

Nyakwezi wanted to be a lawyer because she loves arguing with facts, but she later explored the possibility of helping others through social entrepreneurship and her aspirations changed.

"I now want to be a psychologist. I specifically want to help youth struggling with mental health across different spectrums," she envisions.

Nyakwezi was also inspired by her uncle, Dr Paul Kasenene, a medical doctor specialising in nutrition and functional medicine, who she says has a deep understanding of life.

"He sat me down on Christmas Day of 2018. His message impacted me when he warned me that because I have been privileged to have a decent life without much struggle, it is easy to take life for granted.

He cautioned me not to assume that I will always have a rosy path ahead of me and that I have to work hard to make my own impact and plan for the future when still young," Nyakwezi narrates.

Nyakwezi has since childhood has demonstrated continuous empathy, desire to understand and where possible solve the challenges of fellow young girls while being tenacious and sourcing solutions. 

Importance things in life

Dr Kasenene advised Nyakwezi to achieve three important things for her to have a happy future.

"First, to be able to comfortably put food on the table while being able to meet my other needs, second, it should be in line with my passion, interest and unique skills.

Lastly, I need to be happy while doing it and be able to make a positive impact on the world with a focus on helping others and making this world a better place.

This is because ultimately, it is what we were put on this earth to do. We have to love God and praise Him while helping others."

Nyakwezi testifies that these words made her think about the future differently, helped her in her journey to maturity and also guided her clearly to the world of social entrepreneurship.

Two months later, she started working with teenage mothers at Naguru Teenage Health and Information Centre, where she became a nutrition advocate.

She would also help mothers to take care of their children.

"Mum would drop me there for three hours after school," she says.

During holidays, she would be with the mothers thrice a week, from morning to evening. She also started a project to help the mothers earn a living.

They would collect plastics together with Nyakwezi, while her mother would connect them to recycling plants that offered better prices.

She only stopped working with them when the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed.

"It became hard for me to reach them in their homes, but I am happy that 10 mothers have since grown their urban farming and briquette businesses," she shares.

The lockdown project

During the lockdown, Nyakwezi says she could not just sit home idly.

She linked up with the Christian Youth Missionary Group in Kinawattaka, a Kampala suburb, where she introduced a youth empowerment programme.

"Life may not be the same again with COVID-19. Everything has changed. Currently, the key needs are digital literacy and good nutrition to maintain good immunity. So I wanted to equip these youth with digital skills, nutrition and also encourage them to be entrepreneurs," she says.

"I teamed up with Techno Brain, who equipped them with skills on how to market themselves on social media, while Spark Initiatives trained them in urban farming in order to grow vegetables for subsistence and sale. Village Agent Innovation Hub trained them how to make briquettes from compost," she says.

Other trainers were business experts from the Ministry of Trade and Cooperatives, who taught and also helped them to form a business unit. These will continue to guide them.

"As a young leader, we are also creating youth leaders. I worked with 10 group leaders, who are passing on the skills to other members.

Each group has 20 members. They include teenage mothers and those living with disabilities, aged between 18-30 years," she says.

One of the most fulfilling moments in this journey for Nyakwezi came after the briquette training. She marketed them to Bob Basaza at VELA Innovation Hub in Najjera.

"He placed a sh1,000,000 order for briquettes from our youth group," she says.

Nykwezi adds that the youth group is in the final stages of applying for funding to buy briquette making machines in order to increase their production capacity.

She recalls that the youth were excited about acquiring digital skills, especially being able to conduct zoom meetings as this now helps them to attend church meetings and also connect with the business world.

Funding

On how she funds her projects, Nyakwezi is grateful to her mother for connecting her to her first sponsor, whom she (Nyakwezi) presented her proposal to and got some funds.

"I ensure to give accountability of the money I spend. I have all the records," she says.

Plans

Nyakwezi recently applied to join the African Leadership Academy, which she hopes to join in August 2021 for two years.

Thereafter, she hopes to join the University of California to study psychology and psychiatry.

"Thereafter, I will come back to Uganda to continue with my social entrepreneurship and mental health work," she says.

Nyakwezi has since childhood has demonstrated continuous empathy, desire to understand and where possible solve the challenges of fellow young girls while being tenacious and sourcing solutions.

She was head girl in primary seven and even in her conversation the passion with which she discusses issues indicates the leader in her.

My interactions with her have indicated a kind, dedicated, brilliant and tenacious person, Saidi Bukenya, Board Chairperson , Kibo Foundation

 Advice youth

Keep dreaming of the world you want to live in. Dream out loud.

Discover who you are and how you can help people, the rest will fall in place.

Find out what you are passionate about, not what you are good at.

Find out who you can be beyond what social media or friends tell you.

Do not spend your youthful years doing nothing. Keep busy.

To the philanthropists out there, do it with one heart.

Do not take advantage of the poor to enrich yourself, instead, put a smile on their faces.