From Villagers to Change Agents: How Youth Are Shaping Uganda’s Future
TeamUp Uganda is a mindset of working together for the benefits of rural youth in Mityana District. Implemented by Action 4 Health Uganda, Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung and Whave Solutions, TeamUp combines the working areas Agriculture, Water and Health. Calling it “Cross-sector Collaboration” is very technical and a buzzword. It can be best described by the spirit of the people involved. Those moving the project forward and those whose life turned out to be better as a result. For most of the stakeholders on the ground, both are true.
Grace Kaweesi, 30 years old, is one of them. Not only can one see her dancing happily during the drum session after the weekly meeting of the local saving group; she finds herself equally cheerful at home and together with her husband Samuel, 34. Both live in a small house in Mugulu, a village in Mityana District in Central Uganda. They possess two plots of land, chicken, goats, pigs and a motorbike. All their three children go to school. Grace and Samuel are TeamUp “Change Agents”. People from the villages consult them, often in cases of domestic violence, a common problem in the area. Occasionally, they shelter mistreated women, go to the family’s house afterwards, facilitate dialogue and the way to a better relationship.
With gender training to a happy home
“Our advice is respected within the community”, Grace says, “even though we are relatively young.” That was not always the case. “Previously, there was no peace in our house”, Grace recalls. And Samuel admits: “I got drunk quite often and slapped my wife.” With the little income earned from a poorly maintained coffee garden mostly spent on alcohol, there was no money left for school fees. “But deep down, I felt ashamed”, Samuel says. Then, in 2022, the couple heard of a Gender and Household Training, offered by TeamUp. First reluctant to go there, Samuel was finally convinced by his wife to give it a try. Today the couple agrees: “Since then our life has changed”. Both learned to better maintain their small coffee plantation through sustainable agricultural practices, come up with visions and projects and plan their future together. Thus, the Kaweesi house has turned into a happy home. Samuel: “My children told me: Dad, we never thought, that our life would improve so much.”
Solidarity and access to finance
Abbey Mukwaya, 27, is another member of the Village Savings and Loans Association, run by TeamUp Akezimbira Youth Group and attends the meetings on a football field in Mugulu every Tuesday afternoon as well. Youth can buy “shares” as little as 2000 Ugandan Shilling (about 0,48 Euro) and take out a loan up to three times their savings if needed. The repayment must be guaranteed by two other group members. This solidarity scheme provides access to finance for those who do not have access to a regular bank account.
Thanks to this, Abbey established his own coffee garden. He took part in TeamUp training for agriculture and management - and learned about the household approach as much as Grace and Samuel did. Today, Abbey has become a “Youth farmer field school facilitator”, showing his peers how to make a living out of coffee. Conducting other, casual work is no longer necessary for Abbey; and his wife, who had left him through a period of misunderstandings,returned, and jointly works with him towards a better future for them and their two children.
Providing the youth in Uganda’s remote areas with perspectives and a sufficient income and preventing them from migrating into urban centers is one of the main goals of the strategic TeamUp cross-sector partnership, in which Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS), Siemens Stiftung, Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung and the three implementing organizations Action 4 Health Uganda, HRNS Uganda and Whave Solutions are working together financed by Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ). This is not only done by turning often-times neglected activities like coffee-gardening into a profitable agribusiness but also by supporting the youth in additional business ideas, entrepreneurship, water sources maintenance, and healthy sexual and reproductive lifestyles.
Open doors for creative business ideas
A visit at the TeamUp “Youth Empowerment Center” (YEC) in Kamuli, one of 12 in Mityana and neighbouring Kassanda district: The walls inside the small room are plastered with flipcharts and posters. The overall vision: “A healthy and prosperous youth-led community.” 720 youth, out of which 300 are female, 24 groups and 5 clubs are associated by YEC Kamuli. Together they established a creative business idea: opening a store to sell maize to local farmers at affordable prices and building up their own maize mill - the only one of its kind in the region. With income from the youth saving group and additional support from TeamUp, the young millers soon want to become the leading supplier of high-quality maize flour. The mill is managed by 24-year-old Jennifer Nakato. “Without this job, I might have been already married”, Jennifer says, “but now I can build up an independent income first.”
She’s not the only one enthusiastic. “So many other organizations leave the youth behind - but TeamUp is different. They enable us to show what we are capable of”, this is what you frequently hear from the youth managers at YEC Kamuli. Besides the business set-up, it is all about behavioral change. Gender training, family planning, HIV/Aids protection, condom distribution, as well as access and counseling about contraceptives and “youth-friendly corners” at local health stations. Like Kamuli, all the YECs (12 altogether) have peer facilitators trained in SHRH who conduct community outreaches to educate young people about living healthy and prosperous lives. The good working relationship with government health workers enables them to refer young people to health facilities for professional services: it is this big puzzle of various aspects and activities that make the TeamUp approach so special.
Explore “The Power of Many: Inside TeamUp Uganda’s Cross-sector Collaboration Model” to learn more about the strategy and cross-sector collaboration driving these results.
Responsibility for the youth - transformation for all
Continuous access to safe water is another important component in this jigsaw. Like in the little village of Mayobyo - one of the 206 communities in Mityana and Kassanda district previously dysfunctional water points are fully repaired and maintained by TeamUp partner Whave Solutions. The asset comes at a small monthly fee of about Ugx 2,000 (0.5 Euros) per household- water is unlocked by the villagers via a pre-paid electronic chip. In return, they get constant maintenance and reliable functioning of the facility, managed by the local youth trained by Whave Solutions.
For Ronald Nsubuga, 30, the secret of TeamUp lies in the responsibility it gives to young people. “Becoming role models for our societies is what thrives us.” As a former teacher, Ronald joined the youth club in his village Kakubansiri at the age of 24. Today, he has become the coordinator of the overall Youth Network that assembles the 12 YECs in Mityana and Kassanda, conducting training on sexual reproductive health and helping to solve problems within families. “Sometimes, the elderly think, we are a bit big-headed”, Ronald says, “but then they see real transformation of us young people and of their lives too.”
