In a bid to empower communities through sustainable social initiatives, Airtel Uganda resourced vocational skills training for more than 500 teenage girls at School of Purpose under The Remnant Generation, an NGO in Busega.
The support was extended under Airtel’s 12 Days of Christmas, a key calendar event that is part of the brand’s Corporate Social Responsibility or Investment (CSR/I) activity where the business shares the festive joy with its communities. This entails departments nominating projects that can be supported, however, the identified projects should demonstrate the ability to transform lives by empowering the beneficiaries.
Last year, 12 projects were identified and supported, and The Remnant Generation a non-governmental organization that rescues and restores survivors of sexual abuse and pregnant teen girls was among them. During the visit, Airtel Uganda donated among many other items an electric sewing machine. The machine has several advantages including, giving a better sewing finish, performing embroidery, letter placement, and branding on clothes among other things the user can set it to do.
Of the 500 teenage mothers who graduated from the School of Purpose under The Remnant Generation, 30 girls successfully graduated with tailoring skills and 4 of them were retained at reputable production houses after their internship. Upon acquiring the skills, the graduates were able to showcase their work under the ‘Thrive Collection’. They showcased dresses, throw-on robes, bags, aprons, and skirts among others.
Airtel Uganda CSR manager, Charity R. Bukenya, said, “This is what humanity is about. Opening doors of success for the most vulnerable among us. Such success stories of teenage mothers graduating from vocational training programs and finding their feet to still live a dignified life demonstrate the tangible and positive impact of social initiatives. Airtel’s 12 Days of Christmas is a representation of the various initiatives that the business has implemented to empower its community. Airtel Cares whose pillars of Health, Education, and Technology are the over-arching areas of focus for the different corporate initiatives that Airtel participates in.”
“This year, we visited the beneficiaries of our projects and were impressed by the positive stories that were shared by The Remnant Generation. Our various social corporate initiatives are implemented to transform the livelihoods of our people by extending resources that give them a reason to imagine the world being a better place. We have empowered the communities with resources that are helping them create the change that they seek.” Ms. Bukenya concluded.
Furthermore, Airtel Uganda has integrated its product and service offering in its CSR/I activities given the importance and need of keeping people connected through voice, data, and other communication services thus, they have installed internet connection, upgraded connectivity to the first 5G and 4G Networks across the country, in most of the centers or homes where the projects supported are located.
