Youth unemployment in Uganda has been increasing for the past 10 years; the press has on several occasions reported cases of youth unemployment. In a special report in the Saturday Monitor, (August 21,2010) it was noted that almost 400.0000 students graduate from tertiary institutions every year only to compete for 18,000 government jobs created in the same period. However, during the launching of the World Development Report (2007) the deputy prime minister of Uganda, Hon. Henry Kajura also highlighted the seriousness of youth unemployment in Uganda. He said the labor force was growing at a rate of 3.4 per cent per annum "resulting in 390,000 new job seekers and yet about 8,120 jobs are available each year."
Mr. Kajura said Uganda's national unemployment rate stood at 3.2 percent while that of the youth stood at a whopping 22.3 percent. This may have been even higher considering that he was quoting statistics of 2003.The cases of unemployment among the keep increasing day by day hence the need to intervene in the challenges of un-employment among the youth.
The Republic of Uganda has one of the fastest growing populations in the world. The high population growth rate as well as the high fertility rate led to today's situation where more than 50 % of the population is below the age of 18. As a consequence of this high population growth, youth unemployment has risen sharply over the last number of years. But the high growth rate of the Ugandan population is not the only possible reason for the in-creased number of youth being unemployed. General poverty, an outdated education system and corruption are only some of the reasons that are often mentioned in connection with youth unemployment in Africa, and more specifically in Uganda
The Rotary Vijana Poa program is meant to introduce key interventions to initiated projects and internships to create employment, investing in training the youth and fund their enterprises: start common-sense enterprises, offer internships to youths and ensure that they can making a living, and be self-employed.
The specific objectives are;
i) To support unemployed youth [both educated and uneducated] to come alive to the immense opportunities around them from which they can engage to eke a living
ii) To support educated unemployed youth to transit from a "classroom" environment into the working world so that they can be recruited and retained by employers
iii) To provide a platform bringing together alumni of RVP initiative and unemployed youth to get inspired on how to use common-sense approach to eke a living
iv) To create a pool of Master trainers of the coaching and mentorship circular on Mindset Change and Enterprise Development among volunteer Rotarians, Rotaractors and partners
Funding uptodate
Projgress on the GG funding
# Source Amount Matching Grand total
USD USD
1 40 Clubs in D9213/14 40,000
2 D9213 DDF 20,000 16,000
3 Los Altos 1,000
4 DG Ravi
Cash 8,000
DDF 2,000 1,600
5 District 9214
DDF 5,000 4,000
6 District 5340
DDF 1,000 800
Cash 1,000
7 Nancy and Bill Gray on behalf of RC Cataraqui-Kingston District 7040 1,500
8 Kitt and Dieter Brand on behalf of RC Medicine Hat District 5360 1,500
Total 81,000 22,400 103,400
Needed uncluding project management 140,000
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