By Isaac Akugizibwe,
KAMPALA
Over 70 students under the Youth Empowered Leadership And Entrepreneurship Training Program (YELEP) were on Saturday 2nd September 2023 declared fully empowered to begin the course of impacting Society through Leadership and entrepreneurship. This was during the Program’s first graduation ceremony held at Pope Paul Memorial hotel in Rubaga, Kampala.
Organised by Shine Leadership International in partnership with African Centre for Career Mentorship, Snaks4U,Little Winnie Foundation, Bwongo Consult,The Students Hub, Aye Africa Foundation, Ignite Potential,Tutelage Consultancy, Mindcept Ventures.
The Youth Empowered Leadership and Entrepreneurship Programme (YELEP) has been running online for the last 8 weeks.
According to Anita Malinga the Founder and Executive Director of Shine Leadership International, YELEP started on the 29th of June 2023 and ended on the 24th of August 2023.
“Classes have been running from 5:00am to 7:00am every morning, Mondays to Thursdays and sometimes we stretched to Fridays. This is not a usual practice among the youth in our nation. Let us stand up and clap for these stars,” Malinga said while delivering her speech during Saturday’s graduation ceremony.
“The YELEP stars have been equipped and empowered throughout the 8 weeks in different areas. In this programme, the youth started out on a journey of self-awareness and self- discovery in week 1 where they were challenged to do some introspection, to dig deep within themselves to discover their true God given potential so that they can tap into it and be able to not only unleash it in their different pursuits but to also to leverage their potential so that they can become productive and contribute to the economic development of our country and also contribute to the different Sustainable Development Goals,” she added.
Malinga also expressed confidence in the graduands and urged them to use the different skills attained during the training to change the World.
“These skills are the skills that are highly demanded in the world of work today. We are so proud of you and without a doubt, we know that you are ready to cause impact in the world of work, in this nation and the world at large,” she said.
Omuya Noah,the president of the Youth Coalition for Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) who was also one of the guest speakers,urged government to establish a waiver on taxing innovative young people.
“Can we have a tax waiver for young people who are capable of starting something,” he pleaded.
He also encouraged Young people to take on risky ventures but calculatively.
“I want us to have a round table discussion on how to accelerate and absorb these minds you have created but before,we need to see what they can do of which some we’ve seen. However,my plea is that we should not wait for things to happen,let’s make things happen.
Several graduands of this program that spoke to Parrots Ug said they were fully equipped to start different life changing projects.
“I appreciate YELEP for giving me the necessary skills and confidence to start my money lending business. It equipped me with leadership skills that I didn’t have and yet were very necessary in the positions of leadership that I hold in different spheres of my life.It also gave me valuable contacts that I could use in times of need and guidance,” said Khainza Miriam Albright
“I joined YELEP in the month of June 2023 after Mr Olowo Agustine told me about it. I never really knew or had idea about what it was all about but as we went on having lectures online, I discovered that what I needed and was looking for was all in YELEP,” added Moses Buyinza who is also a student at Kampala University.
The YELEP graduands join several other highly skilled graduates in Uganda but what is likely to set these ones apart is the ability to use their skills to solve problems in society.
