CPAR Uganda Ltd

On Friday, 14^th February 2020, eleven young adults (4 men and 7 women) fulfilled all requirements and thus successfully completed the first of four modules of our CPAR Uganda Ltd innovator mentoring programme.

We awarded them certificates, because they:

“Satisfactorily completed 23 days of training on Understanding Poverty in Rural Uganda as part of CPAR Uganda’s project: Mentoring Young Adults into Innovators against Poverty, conducted from 22^nd January 2020 to 14^th February 2020 at the CPAR Uganda Lira Learning Centre. Topics covered: Conceptions of Poverty; Measurement of Poverty; Causes of Poverty; Symptoms of Poverty; Gender and Poverty; Poverty Messaging; and Where to start in the Fight against Poverty.”

CPAR Uganda Ltd

We are delighted to report that each and every one of our 11 Innovators are not afraid to get their hands dirty. We have every confidence that as they innovate against poverty, they will be hands-on; will lead by example; and will be excellent agents of change.

All have indicated their desire to continue on their mentoring journey and, if funds are available, they will participate in the remaining three modules of our programme:

• Module II: Applying Development Theories and Methodologies to Rural Uganda
• Module III: The Dynamics of Uganda’s Rural Economy
• Module IV: Initiating and Sustaining Innovations for Positive Change in Rural Uganda.

In between modules, they have agreed to be volunteers, offering their time, labour and expertise to CPAR Uganda in areas of administration and fundraising. And, in return, our Managing Director is mentoring them and giving then hands-on training on how to fundraise for and how to administrate a non-profit Ugandan organisation.

Please note, although, we had selected 20 young adults and offered them scholarships to be among our first cohort, four of them did not report for their first module. They gave two major explanations: employers refused them study leave; and conflicting schedule with university programmes.

Of the 16 that reported, two dropped out because their employers called them back to work; and two, because of inability to cope with the participatory nature of the training, which required all to participate equally in class and during non-class activities. Of the twelve that stayed on to the end, one was found insufficient in quality.

Depending on our success in fundraising, it is our intention to make another call to young adults, so that we may select 14 for whom we will conduct Module I.

If we can, we intend to do so before we conduct Module II for the eleven who have already gone through Module I. If we succeed then we will combine the two groups and all the twenty five will go through Module II together.

Our project is now off the ground and we are up-beat that with vital financial support from our donors it will succeed. We are thus indebted to our donors for making it possible for us to positively impact the lives of young adults from disadvantaged communities of Northern Uganda; and through them their wider communities.