Paul and May (extreme left) meet students writing a computer applications exam
It is a cold rainy morning as I set off with my colleague Paul Bulamu to meet up with an inspiring team. Upon arrival, I get surprised to find our friends seated eagerly to meet us. I observe silently that this is the right place we have to be. Moments after we settle down in the board room, the chat begins to ensue. I notice that my pen cannot compete fairly with the pace of the conversation, and my recorder comes in handy. Each in turns as if in song rhythm, i notice that everybody is eager to share their story; and only the sound of computer key boards of students writing an exam from the next room can be heard.
The Vision
Muhammed Kisirisa, Jaffar Nyombi, Richard Kafuma and Brian Baya is one team of visionary youth you don’t want to miss meeting in this life time! They are the founders of Action for Fundamental Change and Development (AFFCAD) in Bwaise slum, in the capital Kampala, Uganda. Born and nurtured as typical slum dwellers; theirs is a dream which started in one of the founder’s small bedroom, just five years ago. In this small room emerged a slum-based youth focused vision in Lufula community in Bwaise, Kampala. This slum is famously known as Kampala’s largest slum with over 9,000 slum dwellers majority of whom are women, children and the youth. The visionaries of this youth initiative are no strangers to the true life of a slum; they were fed, lived and breathed the same air as the people they target. The stench from the endless floods and blocked drainage system, filthy water, the endless disease outbreaks, HIV and AIDS, having to spend some days of starvation; name it; they lived it all and they know what it means. We have lived all kind of hard life, we know how it feels to sleep in a cold room; live without sugar or safe water and having only two clothes. When you talk about poverty, we lived it and because of this, our vision is driven by our own lived experiences in which we strive to see a better slum community for our people; Muhammed recollects. From the collection of scrap, to selling of steamed maize, theirs was a life of making ends meet. Jaffar and Muhammed’s previously were known for collecting scrap, Jaffer could support his mother to sale maize on the streets at 11 years.
Their humble background did not stop their vision; instead it gave them more will. And with only the little resources their families could provide; the team of four young visionaries withered the storm to reach where they are today. I remember our families contributed the equipment for our bedroom office. I offered my bedroom and Brian’s dad an office table, and others gave the little they had, Jaffar adds.
Jaffar narrates that; … the beginnings were not easy either. We were young people without any degrees and we did not even know how to conduct ourselves before professionals. All we had was a vision. I recall at one meeting in Kampala, a group of participants with whom we shared a table, had to abandon their seats upon learning that we were people from the Bwaise slums. We could tell they likened us with drug dealers, thugs or filthy people not deserving at such a meeting. Such treatment did not stop us for we had a story to tell and here is our story!
AFFCAD (left) and URI team (right) chart out
What informs the based programs and Activities?
He continues to say that; the work we do is inspired by our own story. Our community had several problems as imagined in any slum. More than 50% of the population have never attended school, 80% living on less than one U.S dollar a day, majority struggle with large families of about five to ten people, congested in one tiny room; with no clean water for domestic use. What is available for them are the dirty streams because the poor dwellers cannot afford tap water which comes at a cost yet polluted with human waste from the mobile toilets (commonly made from
polythene bags and disposed off anywhere); because in this community majority of the people lack toilets.
Our interventions had to address the very pertinent problems we faced in our community. And after several attempts on different means of survival, two major projects were started gradually. Our first intervention was a school which started with only 20 children and has now translated into a bigger primary school; named Excel Education Centre and Bwaise Youth Employment centre with 800 youth respectively. These two initiatives were started to provide education to the poor slum children and youth who had no means to school and this was considered essential by the founders, if one is to be opened to the gate way of better sustainable livelihoods for the future.
Excel Education Centre, like most of our interventions thrives more on slum tours; which we thought of as a primary means for sustaining based activities and this initiative has been a strong backbone of funding to our activities, Jaffar adds as he’s proudly known by his teammates as a good story teller. The tours are given at $20 to the different tourists, local and international; who in turn interest friends to visit and learn more about slum life. Last year, 2013, they started a Youth Employment centre, where they reached out to over 800 male and female youth in the slum communities of Katanga, Kalerwe, Kikoni and other surrounding areas. The school provides youth with vocational skills in: Tailoring and Fashion Design, Electrical installation, Hair Dressing and Cosmetology, Computer literacy, Graphic Design, Photo and Video Editing, among others; thanks to the US Embassy Kampala.
Paul and May admiring the courses offered at the Youth Employment centre
The programs are complemented by co-curricular activities and life skills development such as annual sports events, festive parties during Christmas, Easter and Eid, and Youth Summer Camps. At such events they target Christians, Muslims and other people of different cultures and beliefs in order to build ridges and enhance cooperation between them.
