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When we started with the water projects in 2004, Pascal (see title picture, together with his family) was only a little 12 year old boy. He grew up as an orphan, having lost his parents when he was very young. He was a social outcast since because of his extreme shyness people thought that he could not speak. However, the development this boy has gone through since then is truly astounding. When we started installing the first water equipment, Pascal was always there, being interested in how things work and helping out by doing errands for us. Also, Pascal quickly proved to be technically adept. We realized that Pascal was very gifted and had an unmatched eagerness to learn. As the Fontes scholarship program came about, Pascal became our first supported student. After having completed secondary school in 2009, he started volunteering as a community liaison officer at a lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park where all the villages with Fontes water projects are situated. Proving himself on the job, he got promoted to the position of supervisor. Around the same time, Pascal began to realize that the people that grow coffee locally are losing out on a lot of money. He observed that they sell all the coffee they produce and still buy industrial coffee for their own consumption instead of using their home-grown coffee. They did this because they thought that that way, they can make more money, but actually the opposite is true. So, Pascal taught the community to start using their own coffee for their own consumption instead of selling everything since that way they can increase their profit. Also, Pascal used this realization to grow coffee himself in his garden and to sell only the excess coffee on the market to make money. Nowadays, his wife is taking care of the coffee business. With the profits from producing coffee, in 2013, Pascal financed his degree in governmental studies. After having completed his degree in 2014, Pascal became the Fontes Assistant Field Officer, helping our then Field Officer in overseeing all the water projects and supporting them on technical issues. After only 8 months, Pascal has been promoted to be our Fontes Field Officer, a position he has now held for 6 years to our greatest satisfaction. Furthermore, Pascal is married and has two children. Being a long-term thinker, Pascal bought some land many years ago on which he just finished building a house for his family. We are so proud of the person Pascal has become and we are especially thankful to the support he has given to the water project communities.

While Pascal continues to impress us, Cleophas’ story is in no way less remarkable. Just like Pascal, he was a Fontes scholarship student. He finished secondary school in 2013. Being very fascinated in technical issues, Cleophas pursued a certificate in electrical installation at YMC Wadegewa (Young Men’s Christian Association). After having heard of the Fontes Youth Centre, Cleophas readily made the decision to come to Kampala to attend the business administration course in 2016. He told us that his time in the Youth Centre was the most impactful to him, because there he learned how to think like an entrepreneur and start a business with little resources. At the end the course in the Youth Centre, as a capstone project, students are required to come up with and present a business plan. We were truly excited to hear that Cleophas executed his business plan of selling Umqombothi, a local brew, right after finishing the course. His business is still continuing to this day but it is now his sister that is handling the everyday operation of the business. With the profits he made, he started another business and bought solar panels and batteries to charge phones for customers. Currently, next to being a business-owner, he also serves as Fontes Assistant Field Officer, shadowing Pascal. The village of Katunguru Rubirizi, Cleophas is overseeing and assisting by himself and when we attended the meeting with the local water committee, we were deeply impressed to see how professionally he chaired the meeting and how well his presenting skills have developed. Cleophas recently got married and has a child. Pascal lets him live at his house while Cleophas saves for an accommodation with his wife. Also, Pascal supported Cleophas with his wedding. In regards to Cleophas future plans, he told us, his grand vision is to have a big bar for the community to come together and share a drink.

Alexander Leuenberger

Volunteer, Fontes Foundation Uganda

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Our first iteration of this event, Career Day, took place in February just a few weeks before the Ugandan government imposed a very strict lockdown on the Ugandan people. Almost 20 companies attended while about 90 of our talented students participated. We had speakers from renown companies such as Laboremus, Fenix, Tugende and Kanzu Code share valuable lessons and insights with our aspiring software developers. After that, the students had the possibility to meet company representatives either on speed dates or at the bazaar where each company had a booth. Lastly, a big BBQ gave everyone the opportunity to mingle and network.

For the second iteration of this event, we had to become very creative since the pandemic made having a physical event impossible. That is why, we had chosen to host a virtual event over hopin, an online events platform, from the British start-up of the same name. Being unfamiliar with the platform ourselves and being the only ones in Kampala using it, made the whole endeavor a daunting task. Also, we changed the name of the event to Tech Knot, giving it a unique name that will stand out compared to other similar events. This time, people were really hesitant in attending because they thought that a virtual event was not worth it and companies are also still struggling because of the pandemic which makes them reluctant to consider hiring people. However, thanks to the unwavering commitment of our team, reaching out to so many people and unrelentingly following up on each and every one of them, we were able to even improve our turnout! Almost 100 students and 20 companies attended. Just like in the previous event, we had speakers from companies but also students presenting their projects at Refactory. But most excitingly we did speed dates and a virtual bazaar. Hopin made all of that very intuitive to use for the attendees. This was reflected in the feedback we got from all the attendees. Especially the employers were positively surprised about the whole event and already asked when the next event would take place, since they enjoyed meeting our students so much and found the event really worthwhile. But the event also received very positive reactions from the students. Two students got a job interview after Tech Knot and we hope that we increase this number next year when the hiring environment has hopefully improved.

Alexander Leuenberger

Volunteer, Fontes Foundation Uganda

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2020 has been a challenging year for all of us, but especially for the most disadvantaged in our society. With a very strict lockdown imposed in Uganda, and the closure of all educational institutions, we had to address one very difficult question: How can we continue our courses when most of our students do not have access to smart devices or the internet? And, how can course material be delivered to them when no public transport, no private cars and bodas were allowed on the streets?

A great deal of dedication of the centre manager then, Denis Ssebugwawo, was key. He showed undivided commitment and dedication to enabling the students receive course materials in their various places of residence including Bunga, Kansanga, Ggaba, Kabalagala and other areas. This was done by cycling to and from these places so that the students could continue with accessing their reading materials.

Furthermore, Isabel Odida (the Director) introduced the use of conference calls to deliver facilitation to the students by the various facilitators. Phones were procured with the facilitator being given access to one. Conference calls were made to groups of up to five students each and students were taught. Online methods like use of zoom were not effective because 90% of the students did not have smart devices that could be used to conduct online facilitation. Therefore, a facilitator had to make up to 6 conference calls delivering the same course material to enable students to attend classes. A case in point was the facilitator for Business English who had to have up to 6 sessions delivering the same material every day. After the lifting of the lockdown on academic institutions, we resumed our normal facilitation program. However, it has been intense with extended hours sometimes, so that our students can have all that the courses have to offer most especially with the kitchen practical lessons and Applied ICT. We have managed to complete what was set out at the beginning and also conducted the evaluation exams. I am happy to announce that we have held our graduation ceremony on the 15^th December, 2020. 

The Fontes Football Club was also revamped with brand new equipment. This motivated the footballers in the team. This team has up to 40 members all of whom are youth who would have otherwise chosen life paths that are detrimental for their destinies. The coach does not only conduct football activities but also holds several capacity building sessions for the youth so that they make better life saving social and economic decisions.

There has been progress in the demand of the services that the commercial kitchen provides some of which include baking and oven use. Marketing of the kitchen services offered has been given priority during the community mobilization sessions that are currently going on. 

Our Job placement program (JPP) is in full gear as we have been able to place up to four students from this cohort even before their graduation. 

The external examiner for the business plan presentations was impressed with the business ideas of two of our students and immediately established contact with his overseas friends to showcase the products and ideas of these students.  This has gone further to bring to life the goals and objectives of the youth centre some of which include to tap into that untapped potential of youth who have not had an opportunity to go through the formal education system. The other goal is to make youth more employable with better skill sets or enable others to start up their own businesses to improve on their income bases. These goals would not be achievable without the continues support Balder Foundation, the main project donor, has given us throughout the years.

There is already an intense mobilization exercise going on in the community where the centre is located and other surrounding areas to register students for our next cohort for January 2021. Already we have up to 41 registered students. This mobilization and registration will be ongoing until we open the youth centre doors next year. 

Rahma Tibasiima

Youth Centre Manager, Fontes Foundation Uganda

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…Do you want to grow your leadership and team-building skills?

…Do you want to make a real impact on reducing youth unemployment in Uganda?

…Do you want to take the Fontes Youth Centre to the next level and move towards a social enterprise model?

…Do you want to work with passionate and committed individuals in an international network?

…Do you like to be creative, innovative and see things happen?

Then you might be the one we are looking for!

Fontes Foundation is looking for a highly reliable, responsible and motivated person with a strong interest in youth empowerment. He/she must present excellent organisation skills as well as great interpersonal skills.

The Youth Centre Manager is responsible for the overall management of the Fontes Youth Centre (http://fontes.no/foundation/fontes-youth-development-centre/) including all the projects as well as its staff. This includes financial management (accountability, budgeting), project management (planning, implementation and reporting), public and stakeholder relations.

Application deadline: 30.09.2020

About Fontes Foundation

Fontes Foundation Uganda is the executing arm of Fontes Foundation, registered in Norway. Fontes Foundation has been active in Uganda since 2003 and started out in the water sector where we trained community groups in basic business management so they could manage their small piped water schemes. Since 2012 Fontes has been active in youth empowerment, mainly through a youth centre in Bunga (Kampala) providing skills to disadvantaged youth. Since 2019 Fontes is a partner in Refactory, an innovative skilling programme for youth interested in a tech career. Refactory and the Youth Centre are currently the main two projects at Fontes Foundation, which consists of a small team at the head office (3-4 staff) as well as 12-15 staff at the youth centre (most are part-time facilitators).

The Youth Centre Manager reports to the Director of Fontes Foundation Uganda. The Youth Centre Manager will receive coaching and continuous follow up from the Director.

Starting salary: UGX 1.7 – 2M  Net Pay

Responsibilities

• Supervise support staff and facilitators and make sure they perform according to terms of references, contracts and code of conduct.
• Be responsible for the daily running of the centre.
• Ensure quality control and make sure facilitators implement curricula and provide quality services.
• Provide input to project planning, development and fundraising and give ideas for future project extensions.
• Keep good working relations with local leaders and authorities and keep them informed about the project.
• Implement monitoring and evaluation and ensure data is collected in a timely manner.
• Manage the curriculum development process.
• Carry out any other assignment as may be requested by the Fontes Foundation management.
• Ensure professional communication to students, stakeholders and staff, and build brand recognition in the community
• Ensure our services are known to the local youth and that we have sufficient students attending our offerings. Continuously improve strategies and methods to reach more youth.

Skills and experience

Minimum of 2-3 years of work experience.

• Experience in working in effective teams.
• Experience in execution of projects and project activities.
• Passionate about reducing youth unemployment in Uganda.
• Excellent communication skills (both written and verbal).  Good command of Luganda is an advantage.
• Organized and able to follow through and prioritize tasks.
• Self-starter who takes initiatives and sees opportunities.
• Experience from the education sector is an added advantage.
• Experience with financial management such as project accounts, budgets, financial planning and financial reporting is an added advantage.

Applications are closed.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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