Many children drop out of school after losing a parent(s) or enduring violent atmospheres, or due to other reason. If a girl gets pregnant before finishing school, she is most likely not allowed to finish the studies and will, therefore drop out. She will struggle to get a job, so she can’t create an income.
SOLUTION
We use a holistic approach that combines skill training, savings mobilisation and entrepreneurship, so that participates can be able to utilize these skill to create supplementary income.
As part of the training programs, we include topic on cross-cutting issues such as gender based violence, HIV/AIDS, and family planning
PARC-Uganda empowers community members, especially women, teenage mother and caregivers (parents / guardians) of the children attending our school with vocational skills aimed at enhancing sustainable livelihoods of families, as well as being able to take good care of children.
Vocational Skills: We train community members (women, young mothers, and parents/ guardians of the children attending our school) to equip with skills that can enable them sustain their families. These skills like sewing/tailoring and knitting, making sanitary pads, backyard farming (kitchen gardening, poultry, piggery, etc),
PARC-Uganda has established a tailoring worship that is being used as a training centre, which is also used for making school uniform and sweaters for children at our school, production of sanitary pads for distribution to school girls, and making educational toys / dolls from cloth cut-outs, thus enhancing the skills of trainees and allowing them to contribute to the development of their community.
Saving and Investment: The community members trained on savings mobilization and are encouraged to be active in the village groups or Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLAs) in their communities. They are encouraged to incorporate critical areas such as child education (school fees), health (medical bills), and social fund (welfare fund) in their savings plans. These village groups or Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLAs) can be assessed on demand (upon expressing interest for a loan) to receive interest -free loans from the community fund, so they can give their members flexible low interest loans.
Business & Financial Literacy: We train women and parents/ guardians of the children attending our school to understand how to make sound financial choices so that they can confidently manage and grow their money, business management, and encouraged them to be job creators. The village groups or Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLAs) get basic financial management training on demand (upon expressing interest for a loan) before they can receive interest -free loans from the community fund, to ensure proper management and utilization of the money in their lending activities.
FUTURE PLANS
- Building a vocational centre that will double as a training hub, with daycare (child caring section) and a women’s meeting place (women’s empowerment centre).
- Seeking out contracts for school uniform production from schools to create more income
- Seeking out for partners (stakeholders) for apprenticeship opportunities
- We are working towards initiating more skill areas such as;-
+ Cosmetology including hairdressing, shampoo, soap and cosmetics making
+ Crafts making (paper beads, handcraft, shoes, bags, school chalk)
+ Fashion and design, tie and die fabric making