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Emergency Trust Fund for Africa
News article12 October 2018

"I want to make something of myself and to take care of my siblings"- Lilian, a 25-year-old apprentice baker from Uganda says

HoA- UG- Lilian Baker

After being out of school for four years, Lilian Yesco was excited when she heard about the skills development programme through which she became a baker apprentice in Arua, the West Nile region of Uganda. “It gives me a chance not only to make something of myself, but also to take care of my siblings,” she says.

25-year-old Lillian had to drop out of school after her father's death. Her six siblings are in primary school and pay their own fees by doing odd jobs. During the holidays and sometimes in the evenings after school, they work in neighbours’ gardens at a fee, and also grow cassava, sorghum and simsim on the family land so that they can sell it. “They are too young to be taking care of themselves, but for now they do not have a choice. When I start working, all that will be no more,” she says hopefully.

After finishing her apprenticeship, a training system coupled with studies, Lilian will be better equipped to find a job and help her siblings.

Lilian likes to bake queen cakes, cookies, chapatti and mandazi. She has also learned how to prepare dishes such as beef and chicken stew, which are quite popular with customers in the area. Arua has been a very busy area in the last years, as many international and national humanitarian organisations have been setting up offices in this area due to the high influx of refugees from South Sudan.

Just like Lilian, Farida is also building a new future for herself. Read her story here:

{Ugandan Farida is a cook apprentice with a newly found entrepreneurial outlook on life: "I would like to start my own business" }

Background:

Lilian is benefiting from the EUTF-funded Support to Refugees and Host Communities in Northern Uganda (SPRS-NU), which is funded through the European Union Emergency Trust Fund. The programme is run by Enabel, the Belgian development agency, and focuses on equipping youth, including women and girls, with skills that can allow them to get employment or start their own jobs. The programme not only seeks to change the livelihoods of refugees but also those Ugandans who live within and around the refugee settlements in Northern Uganda and Kiryandongo.

Details

Publication date
12 October 2018
Region and Country
Uganda
Thematic
Greater economic and employment opportunities
Partner
ENABEL - Belgian Development Agency

Programmes in the region