Lions Club, Aid in Meeting Norway (AiM) and Fontes Foundation have been able to achieve a lot within a short amount of time and with limited resources, with the construction of a new commercial kitchen at Fontes Youth Centre (FYC). The main aim of this project was to have a fully furnished kitchen to further facilitate the already existing Business Catering course, as well as to provide FYC with an opportunity to have a source of income through clients and students paying to use the kitchen for their activities.

The construction commenced in October and, as of December, the kitchen is being used on a daily basis. This December, a representative from AIM visited FYC, and was impressed to see how the current students have already started to put the kitchen to great use as they were completing their final practical exam.

While the kitchen was being constructed, job opportunities were also being created for graduates of the FYC Business catering courses. Former Business catering course graduates were given an opportunity to pitch as service providers for breakfast at Clarke International University (CIU) in Muyenga. The students made a sample breakfast with a variety of snacks for their prospective customers at Clarke International University (CIU), who were very happy with the products. The students have since signed an official contract to supply breakfast at CIU/Refactory every week day between 8 – 11am and are therefore now receiving a steady weekly income. These former students are now also using the Commercial Kitchen daily to prepare the breakfast for CIU.

The Commercial Kitchen is changing the experience of students as well as former students of the Fontes Youth Centre. Moreover, the Business catering course has started creating job opportunities for (former) students, thereby addressing the problem of youth unemployment in Uganda – one of the main goals of Fontes Foundation Uganda.

Thanks to both current and former students, the Commercial Kitchen has already enabled our very own staff to enjoy a great dinner during our annual Fontes Christmas party – we recommend it to everyone!

Thank You, Lions Club Aid In Meeting Norway.

Fontes’ water systems in Western Uganda continue to provide safe drinking water to approximately 15,000 people in five different villages. On top of that, we are very proud that both of our field staff members in Western Uganda, Pascal and Cleophas, are former Fontes scholarship students. Having been provided with the opportunity to go through secondary education by one of Fontes’ donors, they are now able to give back to their communities. They follow up the water systems on a regular basis, encourage and train the water committees and report on technical challenges.

Once a water system is up and running, Fontes mainly focuses on training and follow up. In 2019, Fontes was able to carry out two main training seminars. During these events, we gather water committees and technicians from the villages and go through material such as how to ensure good maintenance, how to do basic accounting and how to sensitise the community on the importance of safe drinking water. Since all the committee members are working on a voluntary basis, they tend to rotate. It is therefore extremely important that these trainings take place on a regular basis. The technicians trained all come from the villages, and most of them have not had any schooling beyond primary education. Still, they are eager to learn and they enjoy the trainings very much!

In October we unfortunately experienced multiple pump failures. Most of the water systems were installed in 2007-2010, and pumps tend to have a 10 year lifespan. Since the villages in Queen Elizabeth National Park are very poor, the price for the water has to be very low for the residents to afford it. After paying the necessary inputs such as chemicals, fuel for generators and a small allowance for the technicians, there is almost nothing left to save for a large breakdown.

With help from our local field staff, the communities were able to request the local District government to include pumps in their budget. After a lot of hard lobbying work and follow up, two pumps were delivered in November. Fontes is very proud of this effort, since it is part of our mission to support the communities in taking advantage of local resources.

Nevertheless, two more new pumps were still needed to have all systems up and running. After a brief campaign on social media we were very grateful to receive donations for the purchase and installation of the remaining two pumps. One of the donors who funded an entire pump, had visited the villages in 2014 and still remembered the massive contrast between the poor fishing villages and the luxury safari lodges very closeby. Another donor promptly agreed to fund the water projects with a generous amount on an annual basis going forward. We are extremely grateful to these and other donors, who acknowledge the importance of our ongoing work in these villages.

Like in many other African countries, information technology is just taking off in Uganda. Technology start-ups are attracting more and more funding from investors, and some tech companies have already become famous in Africa. Many of them are riding on mobile money and aiming to provide financial services to the poor. Others are in e-commerce, online services or blockchain. Generally, there is a lot of buzz and the Government and donors are increasingly interested in supporting the tech sector as a way of growing the job market. More and more students choose IT degrees and aspire to careers in the IT sector.

Established software firms and large corporates with needs in their IT departments are struggling to find talent with the right skills. Competition over software developers with some experience is fierce in the market, which pushes up costs and leads to high turn-over rates. It also increases the risk and cost for companies to invest in training their employees, since they easily leave for a new opportunity when they have the skills.

At the same time, the local universities are being slow to adjust to the trends. The curricula taught are still the same as 10 years ago, and many courses are entirely theoretical. At many institutions students can get through an entire IT degree without writing a single line of code. 

Laboremus Uganda Ltd, where both Marius and Lucrezia (part of the Fontes founding family) are involved, experienced this first hand. Being a Norwegian software firm outsourcing work to Uganda, the biggest challenge was finding and retaining the right talent. At the same time, Clarke International University (formerly IHSU), a private university in Kampala, had embarked on designing a course with a closer link to employers in order to make sure the curriculum is relevant. A formal partnership between the two in 2018 led to a successful application to Norad, along with Fontes Foundation.

Now, at the end of 2019, Refactory is already a well-known brand in Kampala. The number of applicants for the three-month “Catalyst” course is increasing by about 20 students each round. 77 students have already gone through the Catalyst in 2019, and up to 120 students will participate in course in 2020. Most of the students finishing the first round of the six-month practical boot camp in December already have job offers or have been invited to interviews. Refactory is getting calls from companies, HR agencies and even foreign companies who are all interested in hiring the graduates.

The feedback from the students is also overwhelming. Many say that they have learned more in three months at Refactory than during their entire three-year IT degree at university. Others simply say that “Refactory has taught them how to learn”. Life-long learning is key, especially in the tech industry where new frameworks and tools come out every month. Others say how Refactory has shown them the importance of understanding the problem they are trying to solve with a tech solution very well, including listening to the users, customers and all stakeholders involved.

In September, Andela, a Silicon-Valley backed firm aiming at setting up outsourcing hubs at a large scale across Africa, announced a change in strategy. Instead of training youth from scratch, they would now only hire developers with experience. This is just one of the companies that realised that the investment for a private firm to train people from the level they have when they leave university, to a level where they can successfully deliver software for international clients, is too large. This makes sense from a commercial point of view, but only increases the demand for relevant IT training in Uganda. Read more about what this means for the tech sector in Uganda here. 

For Refactory, this just confirmed the importance of our project, and how big the gap is that we are trying to fill. We are determined to make this programme a model for tech education in Uganda (and beyond), and we are actively looking for additional funding. The funding is needed to cover our contribution according to our contract with Norad (which only provides 50% of the funding), but also to enable us to expand the programme so it can reach many more students.

Shortly after the creation of our youth centre in 2012, we created a Music Dance and Drama Team (MDD), also known as the Fontes Cultural Troupe, as well as our very own Fontes Football Club. The aim of both these activities was to engage with the local community, learn more about the challenges young people face in the communities, keep these young people away from drugs and crime, as well as to spread the word about the education opportunities Fontes has to offer.

Allowing vulnerable young people to evolve in a group by dancing or playing football together has huge benefits; the solidarity, support and purpose which these activities provide to disadvantaged young people with limited opportunities is invaluable. Not only do they keep the young people from the street, but the youth groups also form a very strong bond with each other and their coaches. In the case of the football team, the fact that the entire team has chipped in to support tuition fee payments of some of their struggling team members, shows the strength of this bond and support.

Over the past years, Hamiss Wasswa has been a lot more than a football coach to the players. He starts each of his training sessions by trying to understand his players’ daily problems and see how he can help. Thanks to his network in the community, Hamiss has often been the decisive link between his players and their first employment. After some very encouraging results against the U-17 of KCCA (one of the major clubs of the country), we are very proud to announce that one of our players has been selected to play for KCCA, who will provide him with a scholarship. Excitingly, the Fontes team has recently entered the second division. This will provide the team with a huge opportunity for growth, as they will be playing very strong teams.

Shortly after the creation of our youth centre in 2012, we created a Music Dance and Drama Team (MDD), also known as the Fontes Cultural Troupe, as well as our very own Fontes Football Club. The aim of both these activities was to engage with the local community, learn more about the challenges young people face in the communities, keep these young people away from drugs and crime, as well as to spread the word about the education opportunities Fontes has to offer. Allowing vulnerable young people to evolve in a group by dancing or playing football together has huge benefits; the solidarity, support and purpose which these activities provide to disadvantaged young people with limited opportunities is invaluable. Not only do they keep the young people from the street, but the youth groups also form a very strong bond with each other and their coaches.

This year, Fontes Cultural Troupe has increased its reach and some of the members have had international exposure by travelling to China and Vietnam. Sharing some of the deepest cultural roots of Uganda, the Troupe is now self-sustainable and earns money through its performances, which they use in order to improve their shows. They provide great entertainment, performing at different types of events, including weddings and graduation ceremonies. Recently, some of the Troupe’s dancers have volunteered to train several classes of Kansanga Parents Primary School, one of the poorest schools in the region, after which the children successfully performed several traditional dances at their first ever graduation ceremony.