A silver lining from a hopeless life- Daudi Migadde’s story

Monday, 5 August, 2019

Daudi Migadde at the youth for creative art workshop in Kawempe

Dauid Migadde is 16 years old. He joined the Youth creative art workshop in 2017. He was only 14 year old, a destitute and living on hand outs and pickpocketing. Dauid is among the many young people who for different reasons moved away from their homes to come to the urban slums and make a life there.

This is Dauid’s story: – I started living on the streets of Kampala when I was 9 years old.. However life on the streets is very different and terrifying. I had to fend for my self and many times I was involved in street fights and theft. In 2016, I almost lost my life due to drugs and mob justice (beaten by a crowd) after stealing. I was taken to the juvenile prison. While there I was trained in shoe making and mending. This was done for me because I had to get another way to earn a living when I leave jail. Today I am among the lucky young people who are off the streets, leading a more profitable and decent life in Kawempe. I thank Amref Health Africa and the Coca-Cola foundation under the Replenish Africa initiative (RAIN) for supporting our venture of using discarded plastics to make items like shoes. This venture of young people has supported me financially and enabled me improve my skills in shoe-making.

We have been trained on how to manage our business in very simple terms and how to improve our skills. We also got a seed fund and later a boost fund that we have injected into our business.

I am a useful young person in my country and I hope to lure younger people off the streets. It is a very dangerous life. Daudi testified that he has passion and has so far trained 20 young people within his age group and I make two pairs of shoes every day. He believes if young people take opportunities like he did seriously and are supported they will be better people in the near future just like him.

Support Amref Health Africa’s initiative as we turn the tide on plastics – from waste to wealth. Changing lives in communities by sponsoring a youth/women group in skills development and creating income-generating ventures that make the country clean again. ( free of waste plastics) .

Facts about Young people in Uganda : – Young Population:- 34.8% of Uganda’s 34.6 million population are adolescents with a similar sex distribution.

The Dependency Ratio: Uganda’s dependency ratio is 103. Per 100 working age adults in Uganda, there are 103 dependents.

Poverty • 10.9% young males aged 10-24 are heading households. • 38.5% of young people aged 10-19 live in the two poorest wealth quintiles • 19.6% of young people aged 10-19 live in households where the head of household has no education.

Employment • 64% of the young persons aged 15-29 years in Uganda are in some form of employment. • Among the working population aged 10- 24 years, 54.3% are females and 55.1% are males • 15% of youth in school are also engaged in employment.

Ref:https://uganda.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pubpdf/YoungPeople_FactSheet%20%2811%29_0.pdf