Update from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitator

Key People: Thomas Lubari and Joyce Gaba

The report below is provided by our partner Thomas. It details how the vocational training programme is presently going ahead really well. As you will see from previous reports, there have been very encouraging results from this programme. We would like to see the students who graduate, and who obtain employment, in some form or another “paying back” into the programme to ensure that it is perhaps more sustainable. Unfortunately, due to the very tenuous economic situation that almost everyone finds themself in, and also the fact that, by the time they graduate, they are also starting families, this has not proved to be possible. There are the occasional exceptions, but they are very limited.

On one occasion Thomas and Joyce told me that one of the students who had graduated telephoned them after he had graduated and sent them a sum of money. It was a reasonable sum of money, and it was a way of saying thank you for the support that the student had received. The money that he sent was promptly used by Thomas and Joyce to assist with medical costs for some of the other students. This contribution seems to be the exception rather than the rule. However, we can see from below that the student who is graduating in cosmetology also has a passion to continue to spread the training. That is the sort of thing that we would like to see. All in all, this is quite an encouraging programme and we are grateful to partner with Joyce and Thomas who are doing such a wonderful job there.

Recent Events

Vocational Training

This year, 2025, we had a student graduating from YMCA Kampala with a diploma in cosmetology. This student has the desire to engage in skilling youths through short term trainings and providing skills to many others. This training design could be on a termly basis with students attending for 4 weeks three times and graduate to engage in hairdressing and cosmetology especially young women. (Young women are often deprived of education, removed from the education system early, or marry early and are disadvantaged in many ways. Thomas and Joyce are very aware of this). They expect four more to graduate this year from different disciplines.

These are the present students, what they are studying and where:
Repent Juma - Plumbing - Iganga Technical Institute
Winny Khamis Kennedy - Nursing - Arua School of Nursing
Benitah Ainobusinngye - Ophthalmic Clinical Officer - Jinja Ophthalmic Clinical Officers Training School
Atai Joan- Accounts & Finance - Kyambogo University-Kampala
Iman Faith Gloria - Pharmacy - Bugembe Institute of Health
Richard Baraba - Laboratory Technology - Bugembe Institute of Health
James Andama - Medical Clinical Officer - Bugembe Institute of Health
Ana Ita Samuel - Civil Engineering - International University of East Africa
Simeon Itulia - Machine Fitting - Uganda Technical Institute, Lira
Sylvia Akello - Early Child Development - Nile Vocational Institute
Nabirye Zulaa - Cosmetology - YMCA-Kampala
Keji Faith James- Accounts- Uganda Christian University
Ozelle O'Sylvia - Early Child Development - YMCA-Jinja
Jackline Adiili - Nursing - Bugembe Institute of Health
Tricila Ikoyo - Laboratory Technology - Bugembe Institute of Health

Bright Hope World has done greatly in empowering youth in the areas of medical, building & construction, agriculture, education, accounts, tailoring, electrical, engineering, and beauty. These people are increasingly being released into the labour market and are serving their communities in the fields of their training.

Personal Stories

Fiona Nabirye

Graduated from YMCA Kampala. She is a mother of one, who lost her husband with suspected HIV-AIDS. The skills she obtained from the training will help her take care of her child at school and herself.

Her passion is to train youth and vulnerable communities on short term courses to acquire skills related to hairdressing.

The training could benefit school dropouts of primary and secondary school levels who did not obtain any certificate of education.

Benitah Ainobusingye

She is an Ophthalmic Clinical Officer training at Jinja Ophthalmic Clinical Officers Training School. Her parents are very poor and old and uneducated preachers in the remotest villages of Western Uganda.

James Andama

James studies Clinical Medical Sciences and Community Health. He will become a medical assistant after completing his training. He was nominated as the guild president at the Bugembe Institute of Health Sciences where he is studying.   

Winny Khamis

Winny is the wife of a South Sudanese refugee. Both are refugees living in Koboko. She is studying nursing at the Arua School of Nursing.

All the above will graduate with Diplomas each in the field of their studies.

Plans for the Future

I see no reason why this part of the partnership should not simply continue as previously. 

I think it has been a good thing to give Thomas and Joyce a fixed budget for all the different projects and allow them to determine allocation of the funding. Present indications from them are that they are going to continue the vocational training programme as is and simply fund it the same way from the overall budget. Over time this may mean a gradual reduction in the number of students, given that the fees continue to rise. That, however, is an issue that they have to deal with. 

Current Issues and Challenges

The main challenge that Thomas and Joyce face is deciding who can come into the programme given the limited funding. This has been an ongoing issue because their hearts are so drawn to support underprivileged people, and refugees from South Sudan, their home country. I am aware that there are times when they have overextended themselves and often found that there were not funds for contingencies such as medical and exam costs. (In Uganda, unfortunately it is part of the education system that unexpected costs get loaded on to students, particularly just before exam times, and students are not able to sit the exams until these costs have been paid). This issue appears to have been resolved more recently as Thomas and Joyce are very aware that we will not be extending funding to meet predictable crises. 

Prayer and Praise Points

This programme continues to produce excellent results and reflects the enormous amount of commitment that Joyce and Thomas put into the young people in the programme. We have personally witnessed this when we were in Uganda and could see the love, care and sacrificial involvement that Joyce and Thomas had with the young people. They often become like extended family. 

Comments

I have no problems whatsoever with this partnership at present. I am excited that we will be visiting with them in September and am looking forward to meeting some of the present trainees. I have always been impressed with the calibre of trainees that Thomas and Joyce have brought into the programme that we have met in the past. The majority of the students are doing extraordinarily well and almost all of them seem to find reasonable employment which is wonderful in a country that has massive youth unemployment. It is a great testimony to the ability of a relatively small programme to make a big difference to families and individuals.