Lessons from the youth of Africa

The future of Africa is its young people. If there is any doubt, you only need to look at some simple demographic information. For example, the average age of a Ugandan is approximately 15.8 years, one of the lowest in the world. By comparison the age of the average Canadian is 47 years old. Uganda also has the largest refugee population in all of Africa and 60% of them are children.

When I visited Uganda recently with Save the Children, I learned these statistics, but I also learned from Ugandans and refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), living in Western Uganda, some great lessons about how this potential must be nurtured and supported.

Lesson #1 –The generosity of people with nothing

It was in the Kyaka ll refugee settlement in Western Uganda, where organizations such as Save the Children work, that I met and was warmly greeted by Aminata*. With her were her young daughter and foster family of Gloria*, Samuel*, and their two children. Three years earlier at the age of 13, Aminata made the perilous journey to flee the inter-ethnic violence in Eastern Congo. She was abandoned, unaccompanied and pregnant. She also has epilepsy and delayed mental development. When Aminata crossed the border she was identified as a child at risk of abuse and exploitation. Now living in the refugee settlement Aminata is given the essential support she needs, along with over 400 other abandoned, separated and at risk youth.

Aminata’s foster family also fled the Congo several months ago and together they live in a small mud hut they built. They receive no compensation for fostering and have no employment. They farm a patch of land 30m x 30m in this settlement of nearly 50,000 people. It was through volunteering with Save the Children as a member of the child protection committee that Aminata’s foster mother met her. With only a couple of chairs and some pots and pans as possessions they still had room in their lives for Aminata and her daughter. They have made a commitment to them and they are now healthy and cared for. They are no longer abandoned. They are thriving.

Lesson #2 – Teach me how to fish

To get to Kyaka ll refugee settlement you have to drive off road for an hour over 17 kilometers, which often gets blocked due to the adverse weather and heavy rains. This road is how you get to the settlement of nearly 50,000 people in 7 districts. Most of the refugees living here came from Eastern Congo where there is deadly inter-ethnic violence. In the first 5 months of this year the settlement had already absorbed the planned number of people for the year. At the current rate, by year end, the settlement will exceed capacity by 100%. In the Kyegegwe district of the settlement we met the Bundibugyo Youth Technician Company. They had won the contract to build a large portion of the Save the Children Early Childhood Care and Development and Child Friendly Space Centre on a plot of land the size of a football field. Although a week or two from completion it was already an oasis in a densely populated and very demanding place. The construction team were excited to meet us, because three years earlier as rural out of school and unemployed youth they had participated in Save the Children’s Youth in Action program and received technical and entrepreneurial training. They had since formed a construction company and won multiple contracts with other agencies and the government. The legacy of the Bundibugyo Youth Technician Company will be a safe and enriching place for children to play and learn. The legacy of the Youth in Action program will be achievements of the 40,000 young people who participated from five African countries over the last six years.

Lesson #3 – Everyone has a voice, they just need the platform to use it

When I met Doreen, a 20 year old young woman from a remote rural area of Uganda, she was confident and articulate. At age 15 her education stopped as there was not enough money to pay the fees. What money there was in the household was prioritized for education of her male siblings. She was then left helping around the house, got a boyfriend and became pregnant. The relationship ended and she was ostracized by her family.

Three years ago Doreen heard about the Youth in Action program, a six year partnership between Save the Children and Mastercard Foundation working to improve the socio-economic status of 40,000 rural out-of-school boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18, in Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda. Through the 10 month program, Doreen pursued vocational skills including the making of soap and cake baking along with how to run a small enterprise. She started her first business by securing a contract to make soap for a school. Then, as she was trained, she diversified, supplying cakes to another Youth in Action graduate with a business making and putting up decorations for parties. With her profits Doreen started a third business buying a goat and two cows. Her child now goes to one of the best schools in the district and is planning to buy land and build a house. She makes more money than any of her male family members, but that wasn’t the best thing. She told her story at a global conference to hundreds of attendees including members of the Ugandan Parliament. As she closed her presentation she challenged them to continue to fund the program, to continue to empower rural unemployed out of school youth. She didn’t ask. She didn’t plead. She didn’t suggest. She told them they needed do this. Through the program she not only learned important business skills, she found her voice and the expectation that it be heard.

Uganda and Lake Victoria are the source of the Nile, but this country and its’ people are the also the source of some powerful lessons.

*names have been changed to protect identity

David Masse is the co-vice chair on Save the Children Canada’s Board of Directors.