YEI-UGANDA [Youth Empowering Initiative]

Vocational Skills Trainings

vocational2 (29K) Having started the vocational program in early 2008 with support from the Staying Alive Foundation, YEI has already trained more than 500 artisans in making crafts and in weaving.

To help them sell their products and earn personal income, we have helped artisans open a local shop and we also promote their products to the wider market.

To sponsor a vocational trainee, or to purchase beautiful handcrafts from our artisans, please email the Programme Coordinator at coordinator@yei-uganda.org.

Through ongoing trainings, YEI has helped young people who may not have had the opportunity for formal schooling to gain productive skills.

Skill-development trainings are the basis for empowerment and are as important to our work as our very own existence. In addition to vocational trainings, the artisans are also involved in HIV prevention and sensitization education through drama and theatre.

The vocational program is expected to expand and include trainings in tailoring, knitting and hair-dressing. Ultimately, these trainings will culminate into the formation of a Community Vocational Training College. Currently, the trainings are conducted by local artisans at our training centres in the different sub-counties in which we operate.

My husband died 13 years ago and left me with five children. We did not know which disease killed him but some people said it was AIDS. I did not believe it because my husband did not have a second wife and back then HIV was only associated with prostitutes.

But after three years I also became weak and I tested positive for HIV. People who learned of my condition avoided and feared me. I wanted to resort to suicide. Shortly after being hospitalized, I went to YEI to receive couseling and was advised to have my children tested for HIV. One of my children was found positive and the two of us started on ARVs. I am now volunteering with YEI and I feel healthy.

With support from YEI, I feel free to share my story, and yes, my story has encouraged many more people to get tested.

Become a Volunteer

Please make a difference in the lives of the needy by supporting YEI. For $10 you can help one person enroll for ARVs, $50 can pay a year's school fees for an orphan,
$100 can sponsor a radio program on HIV for a whole month, $500 can help two vulnerable youth acquire valuable vocational skills.

To donate, please write to coordinator@yei-uganda.org.

Thank you!