ONE YOUNG GENERATION (FEEEDING THE NEXT)
Meet Anna Agabamukama, founder of a social enterprise tackling hunger in rural schools in Uganda.
Written for Youth Challenge International’s HerStart Program
No child should start the day hungry.
Anna Agabamukama and her team are on a mission to improve nutrition among school children.
“To help ensure they have a bright future, and can be the best versions of themselves,” she said.
Anna was raised in a farming family in rural Uganda. They depended on agriculture to support their large family, and it was often not enough.
“On a daily basis we cannot even earn a dollar from the farming that we are doing,” she said.
“You have to go to school, you have to study, and they expect you to pass, but remember you have gone to school without anything to eat,” she said. “At school, you have not paid for the meals, meaning you have to be in class when you are on an empty stomach.”
These early experiences stuck with Anna throughout her youth and early adulthood. Then, in 2021, Anna’s father died, leaving her and her brother without a means to support themselves.
They had a friend who told them about the Social Innovation Academy (SINA), a non-profit organization that provides youth with skills and education in business development.
Accepted scholars have the opportunity to live at one of the SINA communities, where they join other youth in running a sustainable community and developing a social enterprise of their choosing.
Turning challenges into opportunities is the SINA model. They encourage scholars to look at problems in their communities and lives, and develop businesses that solve them.
“I remember when I came,” said Anna, “I didn’t know anything about business, I didn’t know the strength I had or the things I could do.”
At Jangu International, a SINA community in Mpigi, Uganda, Anna met Ronald Waswa. Like Anna, Waswa knew what it felt like to go to school hungry.
“I liked Anna because of her commitment and persistence,” said Waswa. “So after looking at our values, we saw that her weaknesses were my strengths and then somehow my weaknesses were her strengths.”
The two decided to team up and create a social enterprise together. Together they formed One Young Generation, with a mission to provide nutritional meals to school children.
Before they developed the idea for One Young Generation, they tried several other projects which were not successful. At a certain point, they were not sure how to proceed.
“I had to remember my story,” said Waswa. “When I was young, our granny, who took care of us at the orphanage, wanted us to go to school, but she could not afford to pay for our meals. So our grades were dropping, we were not eating, and we were going to school and seeing our friends eat.”
“Waswa and I had both faced the same challenge,” said Anna.
According to the World Food Programme, 16.4 million Ugandans are not getting enough to eat, and many of them are children. In Uganda, public school requires fees to attend, and students can pay an additional amount to get lunch at school, but many cannot afford these costs.
Waswa and Anna began to brainstorm how they might tackle this challenge. They met with their mentor, and he connected them with an organization in Kenya called Food 4 Education.
Learning and talking with the team at Food 4 Education, Waswa and Anna developed their own innovative model for supporting school children with food.
One Young Generation targets rural villages in Uganda. They buy produce from small farming families, and sell to schools and markets. From the profits, they pay for children’s school meal fees while also supporting the children’s families to make an income.
SINA scholars suggested to Anna and Waswa that they host community dinners as a way to raise money for their project. A skilled cook himself, Waswa recruited friends from the community and they sold tickets for a formal dinner at Jangu International.
“When we announced the first dinner,” said Anna, “members of the community were eager to support the children.” From that first dinner, they raised enough money to launch One Young Generation.
One of the challenges the team faced early on was in being taken seriously. Anna said when they first started approaching school administrators, they were dismissed because they were young.
“They would be like; you are really young children, I don’t think you can manage this,” said Anna. “But as they got to know us they began to take us more seriously.”
At one point, the Mpigi District Education Officer threatened to shut down their project if they weren’t able to demonstrate their success.
Anna and Waswa met with head teachers at the schools where they were operating to measure their impact.
“We were nervous to hear what they were going to say,” said Anna, but the teachers confirmed that One Young Generation was having a positive impact on the school children, so they were allowed to continue their work.
To date, they support 50 children with their meal fees, but Waswa and Anna have big aspirations. They recently hosted a second community dinner, raising enough money to pay for another 50 kids’ meal fees. This year, their goal is to increase their capacity to 200 children.
Long term, said Anna “it remains our vision to have a central kitchen.” With a central kitchen, added Waswa, they can supply meals directly to schools, and they can also manage the nutritional content of the food.
“I have a lot of visions,” said Anna, “but my goal is to see improvement in the nutrition of children in Uganda.”
One Young Generation is now facing more demand than they can accommodate, so they are seeking donors, and looking at different ways to expand their capacity.
“Anyone who is willing to take on a child,” said Anna, “40,000 UGX can feed a child for the whole term.”
Readers can learn more about One Young Generation and contact Anna to get involved here.