Alex Kabinga is using his skills to provide food for his family and an education for his brother
27 May 2020
Earlier in March, before COVID-19 turned into the global pandemic we are all living through today, we were sitting in classroom at a training centre in Uganda. We were there to meet a young man called Alex Kabinga, and he had trained at that very centre, which is run by one of our local partners, TA Crusade.
21 year old Alex joined us with a huge smile on his face, telling us how he “wanted to grab the opportunity” when he heard about training in electrical installation.
Alex comes from a small village. Before learning about the training, he was out of school and had spent the last year earning an unliveable £1.08 a day for the only casual work he could get, herding animals.
But today he is a skilled electrical installer, who loves his new job. He impressed the team at the local St Francis hospital so much during his three month internship that he secured a permanent role there after graduating. He has great pride in looking after the MRI scanner and his income has more than quadrupled!
Investing in a young man like Alex to learn a trade skill sets him and his family up to be more resilient. Resilient when they need it most. When the country goes into lockdown, and savings mean that families are able to eat and buy household essentials
Alex proudly showed us the tools that you donated so that he could could start working straight away
Alex has been saving every month using mobile banking. He can pay the rent for the home he shares with his younger brother who he is supporting to finish school. He is proud of being highly skilled, in a position to look after himself. Receiving tools has really helped his future and means he can earn an income.
He takes his toolkit everywhere with him so he can work. If he hadn’t been equipped with tools by Tools for Self Reliance, it would have taken him a long time to work and save up enough to buy them.
The best thing about his job is being independent, earning money and feeling proud that he can support his siblings.
He bought his mum chickens so that she can earn an income – his mum keeps this income from the chickens, earning money from the sale of the meat and eggs.
He has used his extra income to fix the family homes wind shutters- and he told us that they are so proud of him.
Each tool you have donated, and gift you have made to ensure your tools are sent to young people like Alex, and that there are the training projects for people to learn.
