First a disclaimer. The moral situation is not wholesale grim for unemployed graduate youths that get entrusted with youth development interventions in their communities, but the general attitude amongst policy makers seems to be that graduate youths without clearly visible or defined sources of income are generally unemployed, vulnerable, in need of support, are a … Continue reading Dr. Ben Jones on Uganda’s category: ‘Unemployed Graduate’ (Video)
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Cash flows Necessary for Income Generation
From Thursday, 21st January to Saturday, 23rd January 2021, eleven young adults participated in our training session on cash flows for income generation; a sub-session of Module 4: Initiating and Sustaining Innovations for Positive Change in Rural Uganda of our project: Mentoring Young Adults into Innovators against Poverty. We learnt and practiced how to develop … Continue reading Cash flows Necessary for Income Generation
May we conquer COVID-19 & Resume Normalcy
Last year, 2020, we, at CPAR Uganda, were highly optimistic that it would be the year in which we revive and re-grow our organisation, while implementing projects that have direct positive impact on the wellbeing of our constituency – active disadvantaged communities in our geography of operation, the Greater Northern Uganda and Uganda, generally. And … Continue reading May we conquer COVID-19 & Resume Normalcy
Livelihoods devasted by COVID-19 pandemic
I am honored to be part of the young adult innovators benefitting from CPAR Uganda’s mentoring program. Photo credit @ Norah Owaraga The Savings culture that we learnt during the training bore fruits when we started a savings group, the “Innovators Savings Group”, but due to the lock down (COVID-19 induced locked instituted in March … Continue reading Livelihoods devasted by COVID-19 pandemic
Education should be about teaching life skills
In January 2020, before COVID-19 hit Uganda and forced us into a lockdown, CPAR Uganda had the opportunity to launch our project: “Mentoring Young Adults into Innovators against Poverty” for which we are online fundraising in partnership with the GlobalGiving Foundation. As lead mentor, it is exciting that knowledge that I prior acquired in the … Continue reading Education should be about teaching life skills
Financial Literacy is key for ending poverty
After completing module one of understanding poverty in rural Uganda with CPAR Uganda, I was able to practically apply the skills that I attained (tracking daily expense at home ), which I taught my younger sister as well. “WE SPENT A LOT OF MONEY UNNECESSARILY,” was her comment after several weeks of implementation. With that, … Continue reading Financial Literacy is key for ending poverty
Optimistically Planning Post COVID-19 Recovery
Yesterday, Monday, 23rd November 2020, Owomugisha texted me through Facebook Messenger. “Because of knowing you I am a happy owner of 70 turkeys, which I would not have bought without your connection. I even have ducks clucking away. Last week I harvested 5 acres of Hibiscus. All this I did during the COVID-19 period. I … Continue reading Optimistically Planning Post COVID-19 Recovery
Lesson for Success #10: Reverence and Decency
Honour your father and mother; look after your parents. “And today, mum turns 64! Cheers to the woman whose love, grace, compassion, sobriety and kindness knows no boundaries. Ours is a story resilience, hard work, honesty, sacrifice and modesty; a story too long to be shared in a single post. Wishing you 36 more years … Continue reading Lesson for Success #10: Reverence and Decency
Lesson for Success #07: Focused Drive
The competency of focusing on a goal and harnessing your energy in order to meet that goal – a balance between the components of: Focus - The ability to identify an important goal or vision and to channel efforts at specific targets that support that goal or vision.Drive - The ability to persevere, sacrifice (when … Continue reading Lesson for Success #07: Focused Drive
Lesson for Success #02: Systems Thinking
When my fellow ‘Mitchellite’ tripped and fell flat while coming from the mess, his plate of food remained exactly horizontal and only one bean managed to fall off. In the real world, things do not occur in straight causal lines – things are connected; causal chains are complex and balanced. One thing affects another, which … Continue reading Lesson for Success #02: Systems Thinking
Lesson for success #01: Pay Attention to Detail
In secondary school, one of our mentors, an elderly man in the ‘Brothers of Christian Instruction’ congregation used to say two slogans to us every time he met us: "Neglect Nothing”“Mind the Minutest” Young people seem to lack detail. They gloss over things. They are not cerebral. Reports are shallow and lack the meat – … Continue reading Lesson for success #01: Pay Attention to Detail
GlobalGiving has approved CPAR Uganda Ltd’s due diligence renewal 2020
Yesterday, 28th September 2020, the GlobalGiving Team notified us thus: "We have approved CPAR Uganda Ltd's due diligence renewal. CPAR Uganda Ltd can continue to fundraise on the GlobalGiving platform, receive a GlobalGiving and/or participate in a funding partner giving program."The GlobalGiving Team To learn more about our work which is being supported through fundraising … Continue reading GlobalGiving has approved CPAR Uganda Ltd’s due diligence renewal 2020
Value of Mutuba Trees
Backcloth is a major value which is derived from Mutuba trees alongside other values, including not limited to the following: Backcloth Making @ photo credit Fred Mutebi Shade for domestic animals; and for crops, such as coffee and banana plants.Fodder for domestic animals, for example goats and cows.Wind breakers, especially so for banana plantations.FodderLightening arrestorManure … Continue reading Value of Mutuba Trees
Mental Health Rehab from Hell – Part II
Ms. Desire Lavigne Karakire's testimony, shared on her Facebook wall on 11th July 2020 I wasn't given medical attention then (while incarcerated at the Africa Retreat Center (ARC), I attempted suicide and swallowed glass), and three weeks later when I began to bleed from the rectum with every bowel movement, I wasn't allowed to see … Continue reading Mental Health Rehab from Hell – Part II
Leave a legacy through mentoring or benefit by being open to be mentored
It dawned on me that I was unnecessarily allowing work that can be done by others to pile up in my in-tray. And so, I decided to do something about it. Fix the problem of "I don't know accounts" and teach all our staff members bookkeeping, so that each does the bookkeeping for the transactions … Continue reading Leave a legacy through mentoring or benefit by being open to be mentored
The mindset of youth today on the purpose of education
This post is in reaction to the propositions made by Dr. Laury Lawrence Ocen during the first team meeting of the Challenging Categories project and that were captured in short video titled: "Education is justice, education is excellence." Click here to watch and listen to it. We first want to agree with the statement made … Continue reading The mindset of youth today on the purpose of education
Video: Dr. Ocen on Employment, Under-employment and Unemployment
Employment, under-employment and unemployment, according to Dr. Laury Lawrence Ocen the Co-Investigator on the “Challenging Categories: Educated Unemployed Youths as Institutional Innovators in Rural Uganda” Research Project, are frequently defined by the expectations of those that sponsor candidates through education (parents, government, etc.) and to a lesser extent the candidates themselves. Dr. Laury Lawrence Ocen … Continue reading Video: Dr. Ocen on Employment, Under-employment and Unemployment
You Matter: how women reclaiming their power are changing the world
“You Matter: how women reclaiming their power are changing the world,” is the title of the book that Dr. Rita Jo Laker-Ojok is among the contributing authors. Rita is among the founding members of CPAR Uganda Ltd and was our first Board Chair. According to Rita, the book, "You Matter ...", comprises personal stories of … Continue reading You Matter: how women reclaiming their power are changing the world
Creativity is needed in the dissemination of academic research
"In his thesis, "Reading Monuments: Politics and Poetics of Memory in Postwar Northern Uganda”, Dr. Laury Lawrence Ocen presents monuments as material objects located on former sites of war to remember experiences of mass killings and abductions only.By so doing, other equally important experiences of war such as hunger, infant and child mortality, disease, beatings … Continue reading Creativity is needed in the dissemination of academic research
Video – Education is Justice, education is excellence
In this video Dr. Laury Lawrence Ocen, the Co-Investigator of the “Challenging Categories: Educated Unemployed Youths as Institutional Innovators in Rural Uganda” Research Project opens by quoting three Greek Philosophers - Socrates, Aristotle and Plato - “Education is justice…education is excellence.” Two realities that continue to evade women of rural Uganda and indeed of the … Continue reading Video – Education is Justice, education is excellence
Benefits of social media for academic research
“What interests me the most is what we can do with social and digital media. The ability to promote research directly to the public, and hear their feedback, while connecting academics and their wider audiences is an unparalleled opportunity for universities.I might not be able to persuade every academic I work with to join Twitter, … Continue reading Benefits of social media for academic research
Dr. Laury Ocen among Uganda’s valuable resources – thinkers who write
"A society that stigmatizes other societies with the view of preserving its own values is not only perpetuating hostilities, but also alienating itself from very useful discoveries about the world beyond their frontiers." Dr. Laury Ocen. How so profound his wisdom, especially in today's Uganda when ethnic divisions are seemingly overtly intensifying. Indeed, the most … Continue reading Dr. Laury Ocen among Uganda’s valuable resources – thinkers who write
Video – What is useful knowledge and what may be useless knowledge
Families. Communities and Government invest a lot in training youths through formal education with the perceived end that they will become active contributors in community and family development. Dr. Laury Lawrence Ocen giving a presentation at the first team workshop of our Challenging Categories Research Project. The reality is that this investment, however sustained, is … Continue reading Video – What is useful knowledge and what may be useless knowledge
A grassroots communique on effective mentoring
"I am really happy that Dr. Ben Jones has reprogrammed my mindset and has made research more relaxed and very interesting," shared Innovator Jimmy Ezra Okello. Innovator Jimmy Ezra Okello and Innovator Robert Oluka relaxing in Ngora. Further insight into how and why Dr. Jones has succeeded in positively impacting our lives was provided by Innovator … Continue reading A grassroots communique on effective mentoring
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