Through the Ayim Maber (the future is bright ) project implemented by the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda – NUDIPU and partners NUWODU and Challenges Uganda, with support from Sightsavers and the European Union, Omar Morris was able to attend the vocational skills training that aimed at empowering youth with disabilities to be self-reliant and employed. He has a physical disability.
He was enrolled at Daniel Comboni Vocational Training Institute in Gulu. He opted to be a welder.
He narrates that he got to know about the training opportunity through the isave group he is part of in Oyam, supervised by NUDIPU, and he could not miss the chance.
Worried about future employment
“I was worried about being employed given my disability. But thanks to NUDIPU and partners, who allowed me to learn a skill I never had. I didn’t get a chance to attain formal education, but the training was handy for me to learn a skill that I never had,” shares Omar.
Teaching other youth with disabilities
After being trained in welding and fabricating metal work and given a startup kit, he was able to open a training Centre to train other youth with disabilities.
He has inspired 6 other youth with disabilities and shares he charges about Shs300,000 per student and trains them for 6 months.
Currently, he also employs two more people to support him as he is teaching. This helps him to divide work as the workshop must go on as he has to also to meet his customers request.
Akena Julius is one of the youth we found at Omar’s workshop. He is a youth with physical disability. He shares that he has been training for three 2 months at the workshop. He is hopeful he will perfect his skill and start to work on his own.
“We are grateful that Omar is sharing his knowledge with us. Some of us didn’t get the opportunity to get a formal education. So, we are learning skills to survive and earn a living,” shares Akena.
Challenges
Meeting the training needs of his students is becoming costly. The fee paid sometimes also includes learning materials which encroach on the little profit he must earn. He shares teaching them comes out of passion given the fact that he also got the training for free and he feels he has to support youth like him.
