A lifelong dream, realized!

“Dropping out of school didn’t end my ambition for education,” says Loyang Paul, a 21-year-old from Lokona village, Uganda.

Loyang is the fourth child out of nine in his family. He and his siblings faced significant hurdles in their attempts to obtain an education. The family faced biting poverty and hunger in a society where job training for cattle herding was prioritized above education. Loyang recalls his father saying, “If education is a right [for] every child, where was this right when we were growing up, and, besides, where would I buy books when this so-called school child also needs to eat?”

Despite these cultural priorities, Loyang was determined to attend school. He enrolled in the nearby government school but unfortunately dropped out in his fifth year.

For Loyang, though, new hope arrived in 2015 in the form of the Kacheri Youth Vocational Skills Center, part of the CWS-supported TOGETHER program. The center trains young adults in skills such as brick laying and tailoring. Each community in the sub-county could send two youth to the center free of charge, for a total of 44. Loyang was not among those chosen, but he joined soon after when another student dropped out and there was a vacancy.

Loyang says that the center has changed his life. He has built a network with colleagues and instructors, and he has new skills in laying bricks and in identifying sites and setting foundations for houses. He is proud of all that he has accomplished and the expertise that he now possesses. He hasn’t graduated yet, and already his family members refer to him as “Fundi” (“mason”).

The training that he has received will have a lasting impact for Loyang. He plans to start his own brick laying business after graduation. This increase in income will help support his siblings’ needs as well as his own, and he plans to build a permanent house for his parents and eventually enroll in higher education courses on civil engineering.

Loyang concludes his story by expressing sincere gratitude to all the TOGETHER staff and partners, his instructors and colleagues, the government and the community. He says he appreciates initiatives that support vulnerable young people and help alleviate poverty in youth and their families.