Youth Voice: Faith Aweko of Uganda on her Future, IMF F&D

Source details

Photographer and reporter: JJUMBA MARTIN in Kampala, Uganda.
Date: March 2020.
Profile subject: Faith Aweko, 26.
Context: Grew up in a low-lying slum area in Kampala with routine flooding caused by plastic trash washed into water channels and roadside trenches.

Early influence: Routine flooding and pollution instilled a deep aversion to pollution and shaped her future calling.
Education and turning point: Dropped out of university in her third year in 2016 and needed to find a way to support herself.
Demographic context: People under the age of 30 make up about 75 percent of Uganda’s population.
Labor market gender gap: Women are three times as likely as men to have difficulty finding sustainable employment.
Response: Joined the Social Innovation Academy, an organization working with former orphans, refugees, and other disadvantaged youth to create social enterprises.

Founding partners: Faith Aweko, Mema Rachel (a refugee from Democratic Republic of Congo), and Naluyima Shamim.
Mission: Tackle Uganda’s plastic waste problem by collecting plastic waste and converting it into bags.
Operations and process:
- Source material directly from landfills and collection points around Kampala.
- Workers deliver plastic to the main collection point where it is sorted, cleaned, and hung on clotheslines to dry.
- Dried material is sent to tailors who heat-press it to create a sturdy material fashioned into colorful handbags and backpacks.

Social and environmental impact: Converts plastic waste into useful consumer products, addressing pollution and providing an income-generating activity for disadvantaged youth.
Personal framing: Aweko refused to become a negative statistical outcome and instead co-founded a recycling social enterprise.
Narrative note: The piece juxtaposes Uganda’s large youth population and unemployment challenges with individual initiative and social entrepreneurship.

Source: Youth Voice: Faith Aweko of Uganda on her Future, IMF F&D