Kikondo, UG – Oldest son learning new skills to support his family – 6 Oct 2017

Mama HHM has always been eager to take advantages of learning and development opportunities presented by Wamukisa. Her oldest son, Ukasha, shows the same enthusiasm for learning and action. Ukasha recently attended a solar electricity training to learn skills he hopes will be valued in the local job market.

Ukasha is 15 years old. He dropped out of school 2 years ago. Like many eldest sons in Uganda, he felt a responsibility to help his family earn money. Since leaving school Ukasha has taken over tending the family vegetable garden. He estimates he earns around 30,000 UGS (US $9.09) per month from the garden. He also works odd jobs doing construction or farm work to help earn additional money. These jobs usually pay 5,000 UGS (US $1.52) per day.

In September Ukasha attended a solar electricity workshop facilitated by Wamukisa. He learned to evaluate the total cost of ownership for a solar as well as to operate and perform basic maintenance on a system. He hopes these skills will help him get a job with a solar electricity company or, if he can get his own tools, he would like to start his own solar repair service.

Ukasha also dreams of expanding his vegetable garden into a commercial vegetable farm like Wamukisa’s. He will need more land to accomplish this. One idea Ukasha has is to organize other young men like himself into a group to collaborate on either a solar repair shop or a commercial vegetable garden. For now he continues look for opportunities to learn more from Wamukisa and to develop his projects further.