Reintegration for former child soldiers in Uganda

Empowered; She is Making Others Succeed too!!

Niyee(not real name) is a formerly abducted child mother of two and a recently passed-out client of our 10^th intake. She enrolled for skill training support at Terra Renaissance in 2019 and completed it in August 2021.

The one and half years of training have armed her with skills for empowerment translated to positive actions for change. This has transformed her life from dependence to independence and from her transformed life to a life transformer.

Since the beginning of 2022, #Niyee has informally trained over 20(twenty) community members among whom were two males and the rest being females. From January this year, she had 10 informal learners, Some of whom have completed training depending on the training package undertaken. The ones who completed successfully are productively utilizing their skills in various places i.e within Pader town itself, Kitgum Matidi, Olaam along Agago route and other places.

On this day of our field monitoring visit, the determined #Niyee was found training 4 young girls dressed in round dresses of African material made by themselves with her support. It was a day for assessment of topics covered and content mastered so far.

 In the assessments, they were instructed to sew clothes from the Fashions already handled without duplication. The current five informal students can sew several fashions including; round dresses, dresses with gathers, box dresses, Caribbean dresses, free wears, office wears, straight dresses, shorts, and simple shirts.

The informal training output is already earning them some income as products to sell. It is this income that is recycled back in the form of materials to aid the training.

This informal training of #Niyee is designed to run for 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and one year. Depending on one’s financial capacity the individual enrolls for a package they can afford. All the trainees are sponsored by their parents and have to avail the training materials for them.

Being a trainer is a bonus to #Niyee’s transformed life, today the impact of it is far-reaching by communities demonstrating confidence in her competency by enrolling informal trainees in her workshop. Those already working often call to appreciate her and also consult for technical guidance when the need arises.

As an entrepreneur in her field, she handles orders ranging from individual to group of people organizing different fashions for various functions, musicians among others. Her customers are of all kinds from children to adults, males and females from far and wide. The local radio presenters are often heard praising and advertising her handwork on radio Luo and radio Rappa

Today she earns approximately 800,000UGX   monthly, is the sole breadwinner to her children and pays for their education. She supports two other dependents besides her biological children.

Thanks to the Instructors, helpers, supporters, and all collaborators of Terra Renaissance that made this possible. With this great effort and smooth collaboration, we can continue to deliver much-needed life-changing support to other vulnerable individuals.

Empowered People Empowering Others!

We want to thank everyone for your generosity and continued support of the project in Uganda. Thank you for your love, your wise thoughts, your hard work, and above all, your respect for everyone. We are more than proud because of you, the members and friends of Terra Renaissance.

On the 17^th of February, our team of social workers visited the business of Anyaka(not real name), a 10^th intake former trainee who got married to her husband on the 5^th of March 2022, a few months after she passed out of our training. She operates her business at the Puranga trading center in northern Uganda, some 126 km from Gulu city. During the monitoring and evaluation visit, she was found running her workshop on a veranda by the main roadside leading to Lira city in northern Uganda. She has daily customers of at least 2-5 persons daily bringing new clothing materials and repairs.

Her business is progressing toward her self-reliance and family and community members that she is training. On this particular visit, she was found cheerfully training two people, a young mother (daughter-in-law to her landlady) and her husband. Due to confidentiality, the lady didn’t consent for her pictures to be taken. She has successfully conducted the training for a period of two months already, and her husband can now do minor repairs to clothes as we could witness, and he is able to join clothes with the close supervision and guidance of Anyaka.

Like many others, she is a true example of an empowered person, passionately empowering others in her community using her own resources; her husband is a fast learner capable of becoming a great tailor. The couple is a promising pair who working together, will grow a very powerful business. They plan to buy a baby lock machine this year, 2023, with the support and guidance of the Terra Renaissance technical team. They are working hard through farming to implement this plan as the demand for baby lock services is high in this trading center.

Genuine self-reliance is when empowered individuals like Anyaka envision their own initiatives by completely transforming their mindset, values, and priorities to cheerfully empower members of their own communities, making poverty drop, local communities thrive, and communities become resilient.

We continue to be thankful to all our friends through whom the Terra Renaissance work delivers results and impacts that are changing lives.

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