By Augustine Kabooha
Fort-portal University student finds Gold in handcraft.
Lucy Kabajulizi is a finalist student of Fort-portal based Mountains of the Moon University MMU pursuing Bachelor’s Degree in Social and Community Development awaiting graduation slated for June 2021.
In addition to focusing on achieving a Bachelor’s Degree in Social and Community Development, Kabajulizi spent part of her time on internet where she garnered skills of making handcraft.
Our reporter visited her residence in Rwengoma ward Fort-portal Tourism City where they had an interaction as she shared her experience.
“When government introduced lockdown and closed schools in 2020, I remained home with nothing to do hence deciding to learn something that can make me busy”. I thought of making handcraft but had no idea on how and where to start from.
According to Kabajulizi she decided to use the internet on her phone to conduct self learning lessons where she learnt making table designs out of disposed of Wine Bottles. “It was not easy at the beginning because I taught myself without practical lessons and purchasing threads and other materials were quite expensive since I had no enough money”
After progressing in making designs out of Wine Bottles, I started learning how to make Earrings, Arm rests, Brooches and Hair holders all from internet especially YouTube
Making Handcrafts.
Making designs out of Wine Bottles, Earrings, Arm rests, Brooches and Hair holders requires seriousness, commitment and time investment. The production involves collecting, designing and decorating beads, bottles and joining them with threads and strings.
All the materials and tools used are accessible in our local shops and supermarkets. I also get some Wine bottles from my friends while others are bought at cheaper prices.
Marketing her products.
I decided to use my Smartphone to market my handcraft products through updating status, profile and sharing photos on several what-sup groups and Face-book pages.
Currently the market hasn’t expanded since I have just started the business but hoping to do better in the coming years after attracting many customers.
At the moment I sell my products especially bottle designs to Churches, Hotels and friends especially ladies who like earrings and armrests. At some point I offered free bottle designs to hotels in Fort-portal for people to notice, after sometime I started receiving phone calls of people making orders which encouraged me to go ahead.
Gold in her struggle.
Kabajulizi is now a self-employed woman who has had the opportunity to support her education at the University. She hopes to continue training and equipping other women with her skills so they are able to take care of their families. Although her business has not yet grown, she makes money that can support her wellbeing as a girl child and capable of supporting her family.
Call to young people.
She reveals that her business has helped her discover her potential of being self-employed even after graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree. “Many people today are jobless because they graduated and couldn’t get employment” I am lucky to an extent that I can employ myself even before completing my studies” “she said”.
“We all have skills in our hands and we all have knowledge to apply the skills where necessary”. She added that young people should instead be determined, brave and willing to make a change in society if development is to be realized in Uganda.
Partly bad and partly good.
On 18th March 2020, public gatherings including places of worship, pubs, weddings, music shows, rallies and cultural meetings were suspended for 32 days with immediate effect in order to curb the spread of covid-19 pandemic.
On the same day all schools and universities were closed for 30 days which left close to 15 million learners in homes stranded with parents whose businesses had been closed.
