How is the revolutionary new music programme, Viva@GDPU, pushing on at Gulu Disabled Persons Union, Northern Uganda? How is the training of young people with disabilities, in music making and production, proceeding?
Up and running
Well, the studio is up and running, the studio equipment has been bought and installed successfully. 9 out of the 10 trainees reported for the music programme, good going for this context and we have hopes that the 10th will get there one day.
Singing training in the Viva@GDPU studio
Many songs have been written and recorded, all about social change; music for advocacy.
New software please
In fact it is going so well, the basic software programme they are using is not enough, trainees need something more sophisticated. Andy Corrigan at Viva la Visa, the sponsors of Viva@GDPU, has agreed that trainees should be more ambitious. In future, alongside the freeware programmes (‘FL Studio’) that local musicians and studios use, trainees will work with software that is common in professional studios and the West; ‘Logic Pro’ mostly. This also means that recordings made in Gulu can be mixed elsewhere if need be.
Kama Boo by Abramz
Local instruments
The team in Gulu have realised the importance of local instruments, (traditional ones like: thumb pianos, xylophones, flutes, drums etc) mixed with synthesizers, guitars and keyboards to give the unique ‘Viva’ sound. Viva la Visa have also agreed to pay for another instructor to teach local instruments.
Learning to play traditional instruments
Open mic
Alongside training and time to write their own songs, the trainees have an open mic session on Friday afternoons when they perform their new songs to a critical audience; their peers.
Friday afternoon open mic session: a brief glimpse
New songs?
A total of 18 songs have been produced so far, a small selection included here. The accompanying videos are on their way.
Yesu En Ceng by Nelson P
Viva trainees have presented their music to the community on Radio Speak FM in Gulu, they had good feedback from the community, many people are interested in what they are doing.
Although the VPlus programme has ended, support and skills training for those 113 young trainees with disabilities in Gulu and surrounding districts does not stop. With funding from private individuals and ETC of PWD trustees, Vplusplus @GDPU has just begun. This is so that Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) can give long term Post Training support to all graduates. The first steps have been carried out: Reflection Meetings and trips to the field; to liaise with them all, What will help them succeed in the future? What will get them, their families and their community to a sustainable life?
Out To The Field
One on One Interviews
Formal support trips have begun too, visiting all those graduates in their places of work, or not work as the case maybe. And to discuss with each person what training might help them – core skills perhaps– the latest hairstyles for hairdressers, how to mend the different motorbikes in your area; different techniques for sweater weavers etc. Inevitably literacy and numeracy – book keeping/ invoicing that sort of thing.
Innovation
The new areas brought in for Vplusplus include training members of the family to temporarily produce your goods when your disability prevents you from working yourself. Also, peer support: creating local networks with other people with disabilities banding together for practical and moral support, particularly useful for sweater weavers, for example, whose work is seasonal and intensive when the demand comes.
VPlus Graduates meeting at GDPU
The Vital Role for the Guidance Counsellor
One on One Interviews
Vplusplus field visits also allow the Guidance Counsellor to give support, encouragement, to identify and follow up Safeguarding incidents. Sadly, abuse is, a constant factor in the lives of these graduates. Sometimes that abuse comes from members of the family, sometimes from colleagues at work; often it comes from both. The solutions involve discussion, advocacy, alerting the relevant authorities where necessary, finding safe refuge, medical aid and more; changing the mindset, as the team puts it, is a very slow process
New location for Rubanga Mamiyo Knitting group in Nwoya,
The first monthly report from the Vplusplus team in Gulu:
What went well? We linked up with our beneficiaries in Gulu, Omoro and Nwoya The Knitting group in Nwoya can afford to shift to a better house, along the main road to Anaka Town Council. Diversification of work witnessed during the follow up visit: many members are doing side business to support their main skills. Well facilitated to conduct the activities. Able to identify skills and gaps that exist among the youth. We managed to identify some key safeguarding issues.
What challenges did you have? We faced challenges of mobilisation: some students are not at home; others take so long in the garden, they are still not at home. Some parents are not supporting their children. Some students are not employed or starting their own business. Some students are failing to pay back the revolving capital. Sometimes you get disappointed seeing a student not engaged in work. Long distances and sitting on the bike for long period of time. Bad weather keeps you too long in the field waiting for the rain to stop.
Lessons learnt and recommendations for future trainings: Students do better when they work in a group.
We were impressed that the team in Nyowa are doing so well, because they have a strong team spirit. They are always willing to support one another, physically, financially and emotionally.
Those who have mobile phone are doing quite well; they get in touch with their friends for more business connection and networking.
Where trainees are earning some money, their lives are improving and they are being valued by their parents and relatives.
Opiyo Derrick, Knitting, Nwoya
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Tracer studies are the backbone of post training support. As name suggests, it’s about tracing trainees; where are they now, what are they doing, what extra support do they need? And, of course it’s a vital form of feedback on that their earlier training programme: what worked and what didn’t what should be changed next time?
All of the information below comes from recent field reports by the Vplus team as they go about Post Training Support.
Aroma Elvis and his mother being supported on skill gaps
Tracer Studies: how do they work?
The main aim of these Tracer Studies is to find the 66 Vplus youth from Cohort 2 of the programme. Actually, given the nature of their locations and forms of activity, it also involves trainees from Cohort 1 and even those we supported during the etc@gdpu programme some years ago. Tracer Studies take three forms:
Home visit.
Phone calls.
Visits to workstations.
And cover the following Districts:
Gulu with 16 students,
Gulu City with 28 students,
Nwoya with 4 students,
Omoro with 9 students,
Kitgum with 2 students,
Amuru with 5 students and
Pader with 2 students.
Gulu and surrounding area
Objectives of the Tracer Studies.
Support session at Koch Goma
To help identify and locate where our beneficiaries are working from or staying.
To check on the different activities our students are directly involved in after completing their skills training.
To identify the success, gaps and challenges our beneficiaries are going through in regards to employment, and skills.
To support and guide our students in stages of their business plan development and implementation.
To check on any safeguarding issues our beneficiaries are facing and offer all forms of supports and referrals.
Statistics from the Tracer Studies
Bob Gumakiriza at Niange Ber Motorcycle Repair one of the workshop in Koch Goma
60 youth were followed up, through the different methods listed above.
InCohort 2, 22out of 66beneficiaries are employed by others. The highest number of employed are from Motorcycle Repair and Maintenance and Hairdressing courses.
Akello Fiona working on the hair of a customer
InCohort 2, 13out of 66beneficiaries are self-employed in three areas: Electronic Repair and Maintenance; Tailoring; and Decoration and Design.
25out of 66beneficiaries are still unemployed: 15 females and 10 males. Some are still in the process of job search. Others are planning to start their own businesses, mostly through parental support and the Revolving Capital Loan, especially for Sweater Weaving.
Sweater Weaving is a seasonal business that won’t start until schools go back after the Ebola outbreak shutdown (in February). We are also still in the peak period for farming and many trainees have to work on family concerns. Parents are waiting for money to come back from farming before they can support their child..
6out of 66students are not have not yet been traced but the team are working hard to reach out to them.
Some Examples and Case Studies from the Tailoring course:
Tailoring was a new addition to the Vplus programme, with a new instructor (an ex- graduate). Afterevaluation and discussion with past trainees we realised that Tailoring could be an employment route in some contexts. In the past Tailoring has been put down, certainly Gulu Town is overloaded with tailors, but as we have discovered, away from the town the picture is different.
11 students graduated from this course with a total of 4 employed and 4 self- employed and 3 only unemployed. As the Tracer Studies have shown, there is a high demand for tailoring in the rural communities.
A Case Study in Tailoring: Lakica Sharon
Lakica Sharon at work
Lakica Sharon lives in Odek sub-county and trained in tailoring at GDPU under Vplus. She has strong support from her parents, they have done all they can to empower their daughter to earn a dignified life.
During the visit the Vplus team saw how she communicates well with customers bringing in clothes for repair; she has challenged the stereotypes people have about people with disabilities. Sharon has made UGX 20,000 from minor repair of clothes, usually costing UGX 500 to 1000/. You can now imagine how busy she is in the village, the next tailor within the village is about 5km away.
Lakica Sharon at work
A Case Study in Tailoring: Achiro Joyce
Achiro Joyce at work
Achiro Joyce, is a mother of one child and lives in Palara village, Odek, 6 km from Acet trading center. She rents her sewing machine from a neighbour for UGX 20,000 per month, although this is high she did not refuse because she wants to work. Her workplace is just under a tree, near the road side alongside her family home.
The Vplus team managed to meet her parents and they expressed interest in the Revolving Capital Loan scheme to get a machine for their daughter. Joyce is very happy with the change she has experienced in her life she managed to make UGX 35,000 within two weeks of her work.
Achiro Joyce at her work place
Successes registered:
8 graduates are employed directly in tailoring.
Another good example: Lanyero Scovia from Omoro Omony Jubi village, her parent bought a second hand sewing machine at a cost of UGX 200,000 and she has started working at home.
Students are learning new skills from the engagement they have with others and the work that they are doing, especially those employed by others.
We have witnessed improved livelihood in the families of the youth who completed their training and are working.
Challenges:
Post Training Support visit with VPlus Programme Manager and GDPU Head Teacher: Musema Faruk
Trainees still have gaps in skills and knowledge about maintenance and minor repairs of the sewing machine. For example Achiro from Odek, said she cannot mend machines herself and only one person who can repair machines, and she has to move 6 km to Acet center to find him.
Heavy rainfall affects a number of the youth in the rural centres, because they work under trees and in front of houses.
It’s a farming season, people are planting and harvesting which cuts the number of customers they receive.
Commitments at home, like farming and cooking, have prevented number of students from getting employment.
High levels of poverty mean trainees cannot afford to buy equipment and materials.
Trainees have Skill gaps in making other fashions, like Gomez, (the traditional dresses for formal occasions), shorts, etc
Recording the transactions made in the record book is still a big gap.
Recommendations:
Opiyo Benson in his workshop in Koch-Goma
Training on repair and maintenance skills.
Trainees need more training on book keeping.
To support youth who are interested in the Revolving Capital
Support visit by GDPU instructors to selected youth who need support in identified gaps and demands from their communities.
Safeguarding
A Reflection Meeting at GDPU with VPlus Guidance Counsellor: Okello Emma
Although many graduates live with their families, they are still vulnerable, often from members of their extended family. Tracer Studies are also support visits, and will include Guidance Counsellors amongst the team. Sadly, these visits often uncover significant safeguarding issues.
Recent trips have included supporting parents and trainees in reporting abuse by other members of the family, helping to collect evidence and present it to the Police, providing sign language interpreters for deaf graduates in liaising with the Police and in court, and continuous follow up after official involvement.
Safeguarding in this context is a very difficult area needing highly skilled people. GDPU programme officers are used to dealing with the communities involved and through constant training have become very skilled and experienced in this field.
Members sharing their experience’s during the reflection meetings at Koch Goma
Some Conclusions
As Post Training Support rolls out on the Vplus training programme across a wide area of Gulu and surrounding districts, it is great to hear these reports. We can see how the lives of these young people are developing as a result of the training and support they have been given. It is so heartening to see Vplus trainees take up new opportunities and cope with the challenges that life throws at them.
Want to know more?
A Support Session for VPlus graduates at GDPU
If you would like to know more about the ETC of PWD charity please go to our Home page.
If you would like to give something, please go to our Donate page.
If you would like to know more about Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) please go to their website or Facebook page.
Many Thanks.
This programme is match funded with aid from the British people
The aim of vocational training is, of course, to get the trainee from training to lasting work; to a sustainable life. As the VPlus programme for youth with disabilities in Gulu, Northern Uganda has shown, core skills training is only a small part of that process. What happens for example, after training at the centre is equally important.
Electronics Repair trainees in a lesson at GDPU
Post Training
‘Post Training Support’ as it is called has always suffered from one major problem: capital. Graduates are keen to get their business working, to do what they have trained to do. But they haven’t earned money when training and rarely have capital of their own; start-up costs what they haven’t got. How to solve the first problem that derails so many before they have even begun?
Opiyo Benson in font of his new workplace in Koch Goma
Free Money?
In the past, donors gave out boxes of tools or cash to get things going. Perhaps surprisingly, free stuff didn’t help, far from it. These gifts distorted training before it even began. The first question would-be trainees asked was: what tools are you going to give me? how much money will I get? The gift became the goal, not the training or the aim of a sustainable life. That expectation ruined so many vocational training enterprises; no one values free money. And, anyway, most free tools were sold or stolen with days. Some cash also went to thieves or debts or parties, the vulnerable were preyed on by the powerful; very little went to the new business.
Bob Gumakiriza now working at Niange Ber Motorcycle Repair in Koch Goma
The Revolving Loan Scheme
The solution Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU), who run the VPlus programme, has come up with is innovative: the Revolving Loan Scheme. It depends, as schemes in this context should if they are to last, on strong connections with family and the community. Learning from the first VPlus cohort, GDPU deliberately built good bonds with families in the second cohort.
Apiyo Miriam’s Sweater Weaving Group
How the Scheme Works
In essence, and all participants are told this right from the beginning, they will have to contribute themselves. The trainee or more likely, parents, the community or both will part fund their graduates’ start-up costs. The rest of the start-up money comes from a ring fenced fund set up by GDPU and financed by ETC of PWD.
Akello Fiona hairdresser working on a customers hair
The Importance of the Plan
For example, a group of graduates want to buy a knitting machine for a sweater weaving business. Those graduates will have costed their needs while drawing up a business plan during training. That plan will be the basis of their loan application. The amount to be borrowed, payback terms, the parental/ community contribution and involvement will have been discussed with all concerned, at some length and formally agreed. After the loan terms are agreed and the matching fund is in, GDPU will buy the right machine at a good discount from their suppliers in Kampala (guaranteeing quality and supply etc).
Sweater Weaving Group in Anaka
Tweaking the Scheme
At each subsequent Post Training Support visit, staff from GDPU will also look at the graduates record books (training in bookkeeping etc is of course part of the training). But, the actual financial process is now handled by the VPlus/ GDPU accountant, rather than PTS staff. It was found that graduates feared staff would demand money rather than give support, so graduates refused to be contacted. Separating out support from loans has now removed that problem. GDPU has also reformed repayment schedules, making them flexible according to income and circumstance as recorded by each graduate in their all important record books.
The VPlus Programme Manager, Musema Faruk, discussing a Revolving Loan application
Revolving?
What is also new, is that participants know from the start that the repaid loan is not returned to ETC or GDPU. This money goes into a separate account, used for the next graduate loan. It becomes a growing capital fund for the disability community. Parents and graduates are reminded that repaid loans help their community and the next person down the line; this seems to help repayment. Second cohort parents are far more keen to support and keep their children working, after all their income goes toward paying the loan. GDPU has even started training family members in core skills, so they can keep enterprises going when graduates health and disability makes work difficult.
VPlus Guidance Counsellor, Okello Emma, on a Post Training Support visit to graduates in Odek
Is it Working?
Early reports look good, the money is being returned. Already graduates from the earlier etc@gdpu programme are setting up their own access to the scheme, others we hope will follow if the scheme can be kept running.
A revolving loan indeed.
Want to Know More?
If you would like to know more about the ETC of PWD charity please go to our Home page.
If you would like to give something, please go to our Donate page.
If you would like to know more about Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) please go to their website or Facebook page.
Many Thanks.
This project is match funded with UK aid from the British people
Buying from the Design and Decoration graduates at Graduation Day
Cohort 1 of the VPlus programme graduated in December 2021, they have been at work ever since. So, August 22 was a good time to visit past graduates, learn how they were getting on, what extra training and support they needed and how future programmes should be adapted.
Out To The Field
Developments
The growing quality of the training at Gulu Disabled Persons Union, (GDPU) and greater ambition amongst graduates, has expanded the range of Post Training Support. Extra training demands have moved far beyond the usual literacy, numeracy and record keeping. IT, getting involved with social media as part of the selling process or access to new information, featured heavily in our Post Training Support visits.
But, context matters. Contrast the ways in which three graduates work and sell their goods.
Apiyo Miriam
Apiyo Miriam and the Knitting group with Musema Faruk, outside their shop in Gulu
Apiyo Miriam works with Sweater Weaving groups in Gulu town: ‘Disabled Youth Living Enterprise Group Sweater Knitting’ and ‘Waneno Anyim Sweater Knitting’. They have a smart shop and a growing selection of knitting and sewing machines. Miriam’s record keeping and leadership, in this or any other context, is extraordinarily good.
Miriam with her book keeping records and graduation photo
She is very proactive, seeking out knitting contracts from local schools and individuals; the group is busy. But, as she says the future of selling is on the internet, and that was the training she needed. How to access and use, probably Facebook, to sell their goods across Uganda, certainly. But Miriam’s ambition is much wider, she realises that the West will pay much more for goods made by groups like hers and she wants to know how to do it.
Akello Brenda with Musema Faruk
Akello Brenda
Akello Brenda has sickle cell, and lives with her parents out beyond Unyama traiding centre, five kilometres north east of Gulu. Brenda trained on the Design and Decoration course and makes baskets and jewellery. Every month she takes her baskets etc on a boda (motorbike taxi) out to an auction, one of the large markets that visit outlying trading centres. She will set a blanket on the ground and sell what she can. Last months auction was disturbed by the rain and she sold nothing.
There is nowhere to set up shop around her family compound, although she sometimes sell to people who use the path leading to the centre. It was noticeable how proud her mother was of her child, and how much she wanted to help, buying materials for example. A shop in Unyama might be one possibility, although it is doubtful that returns would cover the rent. But, during Cohort 2, the GDPU Design and Decoration instructor dropped out and Brenda took over, successfully. Most instructors balance making and selling with teaching, it could be a model for her too. Past graduates have already become good instructors at GDPU, eg Aciro Brenda who helped set up the new tailoring course.
A range of Design and Decoration Goods on show at Graduation
Akello Brenda also asked for training in making more complex, and fashionable jewellery, which she knows will sell well. This is where the internet could help her; You Tube videos perhaps? Access to them is tricky without a smartphone, she would probably have to come into GDPU for that. Diversity will be the key for her, she is also a very good traditional dancer
Odong Haron Bob
Haroon Bob at work in Lira
We travelled to Lira, a town similar to Gulu, some 130 or so kilometres to the south east. Odong Haron Bob, an albino, trained in electronics and has a good placement with an extremely entrepreneurial man near the centre. Bob was being trained thoroughly, on more IT kit than I have seen outside Kampala.
Musema Faruk with a member of Gulu PWD Electronics in Gulu Main Market recently
The contrast between this set up and the Gulu PWD electronics group we have been visiting in Gulu Main Market since 2017 was significant. Gulu PWDs have not moved beyond basic feature phones, have little IT experience and after many years have still not put up a sign advertising their business. But, they are significant sportsmen, up to Olympic standard, have genuine political ambitions, likely to be realised and are great company.
Haroon Bob and other Cohort 1 trainees at GDPU
Meanwhile in Lira, all the relevant software was there: several laptops; basic coding; everything you need for modern IT work and Bob was learning it all. There is a well known saying here, “Lira is for business and Gulu is for party”, but there is more to it than that. Gulu PWDs trained in 2014-5 when aspirations were lower, less kit was available and community involvement less significant. For example, Bob’s family helped to place him with this business. The serious development of the ‘Plus’ element in the training that GDPU provides must be part of the solution too.
Back to GDPU
It was with thoughts like these that we returned to our meetings at GDPU. we would consider where the VPlus training programme had led and what should be the future path for training young people with disabilities in Gulu and surrounding districts. See the next blog for more.
Diversity and Music
Odong Sunday plays his music at Cohort 2 Graduation Day
Thinking of the diversity many VPlus graduates use to become self supporting This video, taken during the Cohort 2 graduation at GDPU, shows Odong Sunday and his group playing one of his songs. He has already recorded a more contemporary song that is getting attention, he has many more and appealed for funds to pay for more recording. The Deputy Mayor no less, put forward a significant sum, she knew real talent when she heard it. The role of music and music technology (performed, recorded and sold) in skills training became a significant talking point in our subsequent meeting at GDPU, see the next blog for more.
Want to Know More?
If you would like to know more about the ETC of PWD charity please go to our Home page. If you would like to give something, please go to our Donate page. If you would like to know more about Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) please go to their website or Facebook page.
Many Thanks.
This programme is funded by aid from the British people
ETC of PWD 