Comboni Vocational School is changing the lives of youths who had given up on life in Karamoja

BY EDDY ENURU 

Stress, desperacy, poverty and lack of inspiration drove Rebecca Acam a Senior.4 school dropout from Moroto to think of committing suicide as her good life hope kept deteriorating.

At the age of 16, Acam conceived and faced a tough life as the man who impregnated her took off only to leave her helpless.

“I conceived and the man could not even remember that I impregnated someone and he left me up to now I don’t know where he is,” Acam narrated.

Acam painfully stressed that even when she giving birth later, she waited in hope that the man would return back from escape but all in vain.

Life continued being hard for Acam, she thought of committing suicide having lost hope in life until the intervention of her sister.

“She came home during christmas and sympathized after looking at me. She said she would look for me where I could get enrolled for vocational institute,” Acam said.

Upon reaching at St. Daniel Comboni Vocational school in  Moroto municipality,  she was inspired by the smartly dressed men in  blue colored overalls and chose to take the mechanic paths which she said has helped her to return to her long lost hope though it wasn’t easy to get there.

“I had interest in doing certain courses like nursery teaching but when I looked at the smartly dressed boys in blue overalls I said I need to be like them and I got enrolled in mechanical engineering, ” Acam reaffirmed.

Being a single mother as well as a student, it was not easy for her to get the school requirements to facilitate her studies.

Acam’s troubles mirror those of many teenagers in Uganda who think of ending their lives once they face premature pregnancies.

Indeed, other young people in Moroto have got stories to tell about how they have been struggling to have a successful education.

With the skills development achieved, Acam and her colleagues hope to have their lives changed and as well as that of Karamoja community at large.

To understand Acam’s life experience we followed her to St. Daniel Comboni Vocation school where we engaged with the institution’s principal Jude Kiggala who explained on  how skilling has triggered the hope of youth in Karamoja.

“We have trained a good number of technicians in society, builders, mechanics, welders, tailors and they have come from this institute. The fruits are clear,” Said the Comboni Principle.

Moroto district chairperson Andrew Napaja however raised a concern that unlike Acam, many Karamanjongs have not picked interest in skilling opportunities.

“What can we do as Ugandans to interest the Karamajongs to join the skilling activity?” asked Napaja.

In a struggle to promote and restore the lost hope among the Karamajongs, the Belgium Ambassador to Uganda, Rudi Veestraeten expressed total commitment to skilling youth at the pearl of Africa to create job market.

We have equipped St. Daniel Polytechnic with computers and network installations.

The students can now study like they live,” the Belgium ambassador added.

Similarly, MTN Executive director Wim Vanhelleputte said students need ICT to gain purposeful education.

“Without an ICT lab, computers, you cannot aim for the right education that you deserve,” he whispered to Karamoja vocation students.

In the past years to present,  government has been agitating for skilling youths as way that lead the country into gainful employment arena as well as bridging the income gap between the poor and the rich with Karamoja being at the epicenter of the targeted region where economic transformation is urgently needed.

 

 

The post Comboni Vocational School is changing the lives of youths who had given up on life in Karamoja appeared first on Nile Post.