Global Grant #2690726
Rotary International Global Grant #2690725
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Vocational Training in Uganda
Street-connected children and underprivileged adolescents within Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono, and Mpigi face persistent barriers to economic participation due to low access to marketable vocational skills, limited employability, and lack of structured pathways into safe livelihoods. Many of these youth migrate into Kampala from distant parts of Uganda, often fleeing extreme poverty, domestic violence, neglect, or family breakdown, and they remain on the streets because returning home offers limited opportunity and continued vulnerability.
In Mawule Village, Wakiso District (the project implementation site), rapid peri-urban growth has increased demand for practical labour and small enterprise services, yet the community lacks a nearby vocational training institution. While Mawule has access to a government primary school, it has no public secondary school and no vocational institute, forcing youth to travel long distances for skills training—an option that is unrealistic for homeless and low-income youth. As a result, many adolescents:
• drop out after primary school,
• remain unemployed and idle,
• fall into substance abuse,
• engage in petty crime or survival sex, and/or
• experience teenage pregnancy.
To address these challenges, the RC of Kasangati approached the Rotary Club of Auburn to join the journey of a Global Grant to empower the youth of Uganda, through vocational training and professional tools, to be self-sufficient and excel in their communities.
This project will provide funds to Benjamin House Ministries to develop a new vocational school with sanitation facilities in Mawule Village (Wakiso District) of Uganda. Benjamin House Ministries is a nonprofit faith-based organization committed to transforming the lives of families and vulnerable children, preparing them for their futures, and building up the next generation of leaders.
The Mawule Vocational & Business Institute will be established to serve as the training and rehabilitation hub for vulnerable youth drawn from Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono, and Mpigi, including homeless youth rescued from street life and adolescents who have dropped out of school due to poverty and lack of access to practical skills training. The school will be operated as a secular facility and open to students of all faiths.
Grant funds will pay for training of new teachers, classroom supplies including computers, professional tools and sanitation facilities including biocomposting toilets. Funds will also provide each graduating student with professional tools such as sewing machines to practice their trade. There are not large employment facilities for these new graduates to work at that would provide tools, therefore it is essential that they have their own personal professional tools.
Objectives:
1. Provide opportunity for homeless youth to gain lifelong practical skills they can use to generate income and gain self-sufficiency.
2. Ensure menstruating girls have the opportunity to remain in school and learn by providing on-site bathroom facilities at the vocational training center.
3. Support healing and family reconciliation for street-connected youth. Families often split up because they can't afford another mouth to feed. Once the son or daughter is gainfully employed family relationships are often able to heal.
4. Increase access within the region to basic assistive devices (e.g., long sitters, wheelchairs, wedges) for children with disabilities such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and developmental delays.
The project will deliver hands-on vocational training through the Mawule Vocational & Business Institute, designed to prepare youth to gain employment or create their own jobs. Training will be delivered in practical trades aligned to local economic opportunities (e.g. tailoring, catering, hair and beauty, basic ICT, etc.), enabling youth to participate in the peri-urban economy where small businesses, bricklaying, farming and informal manufacturing are common.
Because the community needs assessment identified drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, and youth idleness as major community concerns, vocational training will be combined with:
1. life skills education,
2. mentorship and positive role modeling,
3. behavior change sessions focusing on drug avoidance and responsible decision-making,
4. reproductive health and prevention messaging (especially for vulnerable girls).
This component ensures that the project does not only teach a trade, but also builds resilience and personal discipline required for sustainable livelihoods. Upon completion of training, beneficiaries will transition through one of three pathways:
1. Employment placement into local workshops, businesses, and small factories;
2. Apprenticeship attachments with skilled artisans to strengthen practical experience;
3. Self-employment/enterprise start-up, supported through basic entrepreneurship training and business readiness support.
This directly addresses the community’s priority of reducing youth unemployment, and responds to parent concerns that formal