The educational year has just commenced in Uganda and Nurture Africa has enrolled 212 first year students for its hairdressing, tailoring, catering, carpentry and new bio-waste recycling vocational courses. The success of he Vocational Education Programme is ultimately measured by the number of students who complete their course and gain employment or establish their own business and in doing so, earn an income that enables them to support themselves and their family. In this blog, we would like to share a story from Mary (not her real name) who, after two years of vocational training, is crea ..read more

For both women we are sitting with, there is no better day than International Women's Day to share their stories of hope and inspiration! Nurture Africa implements a unique" holistic family centred model" where each guardian (who represents a family/household) receives a combination of the following: - 1) Training and resources to develop a Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) which in turn supports them to generate an income. 2) Training and resources to start a backyard vegetable garden to ensure the family can provide its on food. 3) Training in the Rights of the Child and child pro ..read more

Nurture Africa's Vocational Training Centre was establish in 2016 as a response to the high youth population in Uganda who had failed to access or progress through the formal education system. Through this programme, we seek to enroll the most at risk youth into vocational education. Our comprehensive social enterprise model equips all students with theoretical and practical skills for their chosen course. These courses are: 1) Catering 2) Hair dressing 3) Fashion and Design 4) Carpentry The skills acquired enable graduated students to gain formal employment or start their own businesses. Nur ..read more

One of the five pillars of Nurture Africa's "Holistic Family Centred Model" is to support families to access sustainable and nutritious food, by growing their own. Nuwagaba Moses of Nurture Africa is conducting a training for a group of twenty two parents and guardians at Nurture Africa's demonstration vegetable garden in Nansana, Uganda. He explains the reasons behind the need for this project. "When we hear or read of families in Uganda requiring nutritional support, maybe the immediate assumption is that they are totally malnourished and require immediate intervention. For some of the famil ..read more

Uganda is a country with a population of over 44 million people. However, just 32 percent of Ugandans have access to a basic water supply, whilst just 18 percent have access to basic sanitation and seven million people practice open defecation (WHO/UNICEF 2019). 22nd March is World Water Day and Nurture Africa's Health Services Manager Geofrey Walusimbi shares the impact that the startling figures above have upon healthcare in Uganda and more specifically health services within the Nurture Africa Medical Centre. "Water borne diseases, resulting from a lack of access to safe water for consumpt ..read more

With the onset of Covid-19 it was clear to Nurture Africa staff in Ireland and Uganda that the annual overseas volunteer programme would not be taking place during the summer 2020. Since 2005, Irish school teachers have travelled to Uganda to volunteer for 3 weeks in a partner school. In order to maintain the connection, Nurture Africa established a series of peer-to-peer teaching workshops throughout July and August 2020. Nine Irish teaching volunteers were recruited and workshop confirmed. Irish volunteer teachers would prepare and present workshops on Positive Reinforcement, Collaborative L ..read more

Katie Lyons took part in the Nurture Africa Volunteer Programme this summer. Nurture Africa moved its programme to the online space as a result of COVID-19. Katie was tasked with exploring the world of communication.... Specifically, the flow of information that comes from the Global South and is consumed by people in the Global North. As a starting point, we asked Katie to research the Dochas Code of Conduct on Images and Messages (link below) and to complete "E-TICK" which is an e-learning course focused upon ethical communication (link below). Over to you Katie... Before embarking on the vi ..read more

Seeing Nakato seated in Baby class together with other five year old's, raising bottle caps of different colours seems effortlessly done. To her mother and twin sister, they have hoped and waited for this miracle for the last 10 years. In fact going to school was far beyond what they asked for then... Babirye Elsheeba and Nakato Elizabeth were born in 2005 in the outskirts of Kampala city. Their mother Janipher described her shock, with tears streaming down her cheeks as she sorts groundnuts into two mounds, of how neither of her two scans showed that she was carrying twins. Yet there she was ..read more

​Princess Opan is South Sudanese and 15 years of age. Opan's hopes of completing school nearly ended when her home country was plunged into war in 2015. "Initially, I dreamt of becoming an important person after completing school. All of this changed in 2017 when the violence in South Sudan escalated and my family was forced to flee and go to Uganda. My family were scattered during the chaos and I have not seen even one of them since we separated. I entered Uganda as an unaccompanied minor clueless of where to begin sketching my life from. I felt totally disheartened on my way to a place unkno ..read more

Kasirivu Henry is a 17 year old boy yet speaks with the maturity of someone far older. This is because he had to grow up quick. His parents separated and he along with his siblings, stayed with their father. Some years later, the children's lives were changed forever.... "Myself and my siblings all attended school. However, our father then passed away. I found myself as the head of the house with myself and my siblings to take care of. This was a real struggle as we had no money to pay school fees. I decided that I would miss some days at school as I had found work in people’s gardens. This al ..read more