CRED Foundation has recently awarded ILA Uganda with a three months “Education 4 All” grant to support sustainable life skills among refugee youths in Palabek Refugee Settlement in Lamwo district. An assessment of potential beneficiaries has been done and four candidates have been identified with two coming from the settlement and host community respectively.
Last week, we featured two of the beneficiaries, this week we introduce you to the other two.
Walter is 26 and resident Padolo Village and he come from polygamous family raised by a single mother.
He suffered the pain of child the neglect and as result he left home and went to Hoima to such for any livelihood opportunity but life become more difficult and frustrating as the job which was promised to him never existed.
Walter was forced to join peer groups who were engaged in drug abuse including; Opium, Alcohol etc, he managed to get a well-wisher who transported him back to Lamwo district where ILA Uganda met in December 2024. He was very frustrated as he narrated his story to one Staff of ILA Uganda and in his story he noted that he wanted to commit suicide to end all the pain and misery of the life he was undergoing. After several counseling sessions of one on one, he developed a sense of belonging and felt that he was not alone since they are still good people in the world who really cared about him.
He was selected for the Program of Skills development in hairdressing because of the positive change that he had exhibited in his social behavior by refusing to engage himself in drug abuse and addition. He choose a different path of life and is committed to finish the vocational training in hairdressing which he hope to earn a living for his life’s sustainability. He is thankful to ILA Uganda for giving him a second chance to have a better life and a promising future.
Lilly is a 23 year old refugee from South Sudan with her grandmother and two daughters. She is the breadwinner of her family taking care of her sickly grandmother, her two children and one for her sister. She lost her parents during the insurgency back in South Sudan and ran to Uganda for refuge as a refugee. She has gone through very traumatizing events in her including watching her children killed!
She desires to learn practical skills in tailoring with interest in fashion and design so that she can establish her own business and take better care of her family. Lilly is undertaking tailoring which she believes when she completes she will be able to establish a tailoring business from which she will make money so that she provides for her family’s needs.