Community Innovators with the Uganda Red Cross hope to make a big difference in young peoples’ lives with small, green enterprises
They say big things often come in small packages. In an unassuming, sky-blue garage in Ssembuule Village in western Kampala, five Ugandan Red Cross volunteers are making a big difference in their own lives and in their community. The volunteers are busy cutting, folding and gluing large sheets of brown paper into small paper bags, which are sold to local shops. They are used to hold everything from tomatoes, snacks, to gifts for wedding guests, in their different sizes. The proceeds help to keep the enterprise running and provide young people in this impoverished neighborhood a small income.
This do-it-yourself style project also has an ecological bent because it cuts down on the need for plastic bags, which often litter the roadsides and even exacerbates flooding by clogging up local pipe systems for rainwater. The project is one of several social enterprises around the country being run in partnership between the IFRC, the Ugandan Red Cross and Generation Amazing in which young people make an ecological impact and a small income. It started with a project that used football to mobilizing young people among local refugees and host communities, but it has grown now to other eco-friendly projects such as making soap, paving stones, and bricks using recycled materials.
“They are not just making money by making paper bags,” says Stephen Arinitwe, the team leader of the Community Innovators Group, part of the Youth as Agents of Behavioral Change (YABC) Project under the Kampala West Branch of the Uganda Red Cross Society. “They are also learning about the environment and getting training and job experience that helps them go on to get other jobs as well.”
“We got the idea of making paper bags after the government abolished polythene bags.So we came up with this eco-friendly project. [People here] may not be able to afford transport to town. So we brought the production to their community.”
Stephen Arinitwe
Team leader, Community Innovators Group
Kampala West Branch, Uganda Red Cross
In this cheerful, sky-blue building in Ssembuule zone, in the Kitebi Parish, Kampala, big things are happening. A team of Community Innovators are making a small income and helping the environment by making paper bags that will help local businesses wean themselves from plastic.
In this cheerful, sky-blue building in Ssembuule zone, in the Kitebi Parish, Kampala, big things are happening. A team of Community Innovators are making a small income and helping the environment by making paper bags that will help local businesses wean themselves from plastic.
The paper bags are produced in different sizes depending on customers’ preferences. These pictured above will be for shops that sell produce or small goods but the team also does custom orders for weddings and bags can be branded with business logos.
About 225 young people have been trained in paper bag making and other manufacturing projects in the community, says team leader Stephen Arinitwe. “They have also done a lot of outreach in the community about environmental conversation. We have a lot of flooding in the community because of plastic bags getting stuck in the waste water systems so we try to teach them about using degradable bags to avoid floods every time it rains heavily.
There’s a spirit of comradery, pride and fun as the youths make their bags and especially when they see them being used in stores and events all over Kampala.
Stephen Arinitwe
Team leader, Community Innovators Group
Kampala West Branch, Uganda Red Cross
“We got the idea of making paper bags after the government abolished polythene bags. So we came up with this eco-friendly project. Here, we are operating in a slum community where most people make a living by doing small, casual jobs like making chappatis and rolex, as well as doing small jobs in restaurants. They may not be able to afford transport to go to town. So we brought the production to their community. Right now we have a fuel crisis in Uganda, so transport prices are high and so this also helps the local community get products nearby”.
Mary Immaculate Nalunkuma
Member, Community Innovators Group member
Ssembuule Neighborhood, Western Kampala
“I am very proud of this product we are making. I am proud of it because we are earning something unlike before when I never had a job. So I am thankful to this project, to the donors and the Red Cross. For the youth out there, I would say they have to join groups, because when you join, you are able to acquire something. I tell all the youths out there it’s better to join groups like this and not to underestimate the importance of doing small jobs. If not for this project I would not have been here and learned so much.”
Jackson Peter Kassino
Refugee from South Sudan
“This project has helped me a lot. I came to know it through the football (YABC) project. We started the project with football and I learned about it from that. I have learned a lot and I am so grateful for that and all the supporters who make the project possible. My message to all my fellow youth refugees is that you have to be strong and fight for your goals and your dreams and, if you do, your dreams will come true.”
Abraham Guborogbayo Albino
Refugee from South Sudan
“For us as refugees we face some challenges and financial issues. So we joined this and we are now hear doing a job, which will help us to get other jobs and that’s why we give thanks to the Red Cross and appreciate them.”
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This story was produced by Prize Tayebwa
A talented and creative Uganda Red Cross storyteller.
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