By Michael Atwakiire
Sheema: As one way of fighting poverty and unemployment, renowned lawyer David Kamukama has seen to it that over 1200 youth obtain bursaries to acquire vocational training at Bikwatse Kamukama Foundation, in Sheema district.
The institution located at Kyabandaara Church of Uganda, in Sheema municipality, was started up by Counsel David that equips learners with vocational skills like hair dressing, tailoring, welding, shoe making, knitting and others.
During the pass out of several trainees who had completed their studies on Tuesday, Kamukama said that; “Bikwase Kamukama Foundation was formed out of a desire to give back to society through tangible and realistic core skills based education. Following research, we established that the school dropout rate was high in Sheema District, using Sheema Municipality as a case study, hence the need to teach and equip youth with Vocational skills. Skills offered include tailoring, knitting, shoe making, catering, metal works among others.”
He added that “We are registered with the Registrar of Companies as a company limited by guarantee and and licensed by Ministry of Education and Sports under Directorate of Industrial Training.
Our services are free of charge because we usually give this opportunity to orphans, the needy and poor people. At the end of the course, we give them certificates through the ministry of education and on top of that, we give them starting capital. For example if it’s a student of tailoring, we give you a tailoring machine. Bikwatse Kamukama Foundation’s main aim is to fight unemployment in Sheema district.”
Kamukama revealed that he has already opened up two branches in Kanyamatambara and Kihunda villages, both in Sheema municipality, where over 1000 students are already receiving vocational training whereas 420 students have already completed their studies and are waiting for results from exams which they sat in November 2019.
However being a free institution, Kamukama said that his students still lack permanent structures where they can attend their lessons from, since they currently study from church buildings.
He called upon governments to come to their rescue by offering logistical support, since the Foundation furthers the goals of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE
