KAMPALA– About 40 youth from several cooperatives on the Coop360° Network are attending a four-day annual Kyoto Youth Leadership and Entrepreneurship Camp 2022, organised by The Uhuru Institute for Social Development [TUI].
TUI, which also has a special focus on the youth, is a social business organisation that among other activities, works to contribute to the development of the cooperatives in Uganda as an engine of social-economic transformation.
Addressing the youth attending the camp on April 25, 2022 at Kyoto Spiritual Resort Namugongo, TUI’s founder and CEO Leonard Okello urged the participants to be innovative, work hard and create wealth, instead of relying on begging or waiting to get free things.
“Once things are given to you for free, you cannot work and get your own. Free money will destroy you,” he told the youth attending the event that runs from April 25 -28, 2022 under the theme, ‘ Legacy Living’.
Okello urged the youth to begin to re-examine themselves as individuals and not to go by what the majority do and say.
He said the youth form majority of Uganda’s population, and that therefore have an important stake in the development of the country by way of engaging in productive engagements.
A major objective of the camp is to mobilise youth into joining and actively patronizing cooperatives for employment creation and social-economic transformation.
Okello advised them to focus on a particular enterprise/business, warning that embarking on many unplanned businesses could make them lose focus. “Don’t just do things because others are doing them,” he said.
He urged the youth to desist from engaging in activities like sex that do not contribute much to their development. “He urged them to instead engage in money-making activities. He for instance said they could use music to make money, which he said is a source of financial power to an individual.
He said all successes and failures are a result of choice, urging the youth to work at what they want to achieve in life. He advised the young people not to spend more of their time sleeping and doing other useless things, adding that the days of the young people waiting to receive free things from their parents are long gone.
He urged the youth to create their own space, saying that nobody in Uganda will give them the space they clamour for. “Nobody will give you space. You have to create your own. If you don’t, forget about it,” he said.
Daniel Kagodo, who deals in rice but is also a member of Pallisa Market Vendors Sacco while encouraging his colleagues at the camp, said he engaged at one time while at school sold boiled cassava and other things to earn money that he used to cater for himself.
He urged his fellow youth not to care about what others say about them as long as they are making money to help themselves.
Allan Suuwe, from Kabale Leaders Sacco, also urged fellow youth to work hard, saying his mission is to build a generational enterprise. “Some youth don’t want to work but it is important to work,” he said.
Okello urged the youth not to indulge in activities that could cost their health. Don’t joke with your health. To make money you must be healthy,” he said, advising them to build and work with teams that can help them create more wealth.
He said the youth of today should look at themselves as problem solvers in the societies they live. “Business people identify problems … so that they provide solutions to those problems,” he said.
He discouraged them from begging, saying the bad habit will not help them to prosper in life. He urged the youth to take advantage of crises to create business opportunities.
He, for example, said Uganda can take advantage of the war in Ukraine to grow more wheat in Sebei region. He said cassava flour can also make good bread, he said the country should not keep crying of the limited wheat supplies from Russia and Ukraine.
Since 2014, TUI has organised eight youth camps and collaboratively organised one agribusiness youth caravan with amazing impact evidenced by the testimonies of the alumni.
One of the objectives of Youth Camp is to work on the mindset change, create awareness, and stir up self-responsibility amongst the youth so that they can be best placed to take advantage of opportunities in Uganda, Africa, and the world.
It is also meant to enhance networking amongst the youth, and between the youth and several stakeholders so as to break the real and perceived barriers to legacy living.
It is also one way of promoting interest and participation of youth in cooperatives, with a view that if exploited and explored, cooperatives are one of the best vehicles for individual and collective legacy living.
Among the topics arranged for the youth for discussion during the camp touch on; the role of the youth in social-economic transformation, building legacy businesses, taxation, business idea pitching, and financial literacy.
In the past, the 2022 camp concept note, notes, young Ugandans belonging to Bugisu, Teso, Busoga and Masaka Cooperative Unions ensured investment in the development of Nabumali High School, Mt. Elgon Hotel Mbale, Teso College Aloet, Uganda Railways Corporation Namasagali stretch, Creps Pineapple soda production respectively.
TUI, Okello, said sees the youth not only as future leaders of cooperatives but of the country. The youth are expected to be honest and accountable to their cooperatives and country. The youth leadership and entrepreneurship camp is part of TUI’s efforts to help the youth be responsible business people, especially in their cooperatives.
Youth attending the camp are sensitised on cooperative principles, values and ethics, governance and operations, and their unique role in the socio-economic transformation of Uganda.
They were told to do away with excuses. “Excuses are the biggest impediments to achieving success, and the youths should avoid using excuses to explain their failure. Rather they should be action-oriented to achieve success in life.”
https://thecooperator.news/the-uhuru-institute-youth-camps-addressing-unemployment/
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