{
  "title": "Youth Voice: Faith Aweko of Uganda on her Future, IMF F&D",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/03/youth-voice-faith-aweko-uganda",
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  "summary": "A large, young population can be a country’s most valuable asset, opening the door to higher incomes and a reduction in poverty. But it can also pose pressing challenges.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Background",
      "content": "- Photographer and reporter: JJUMBA MARTIN in Kampala, Uganda.\n- Date: March 2020.\n- Profile subject: Faith Aweko, 26.\n- 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."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Motivation and personal trajectory",
      "content": "- Early influence: Routine flooding and pollution instilled a deep aversion to pollution and shaped her future calling.\n- Education and turning point: Dropped out of university in her third year in 2016 and needed to find a way to support herself.\n- Demographic context: People under the age of 30 make up about 75 percent of Uganda’s population.\n- Labor market gender gap: Women are three times as likely as men to have difficulty finding sustainable employment.\n- Response: Joined the Social Innovation Academy, an organization working with former orphans, refugees, and other disadvantaged youth to create social enterprises."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Social enterprise: Reform Africa",
      "content": "- Founding partners: Faith Aweko, Mema Rachel (a refugee from Democratic Republic of Congo), and Naluyima Shamim.\n- Mission: Tackle Uganda’s plastic waste problem by collecting plastic waste and converting it into bags.\n- Operations and process:\n  - Source material directly from landfills and collection points around Kampala.\n  - Workers deliver plastic to the main collection point where it is sorted, cleaned, and hung on clotheslines to dry.\n  - Dried material is sent to tailors who heat-press it to create a sturdy material fashioned into colorful handbags and backpacks."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Outcomes and framing",
      "content": "- Social and environmental impact: Converts plastic waste into useful consumer products, addressing pollution and providing an income-generating activity for disadvantaged youth.\n- Personal framing: Aweko refused to become a negative statistical outcome and instead co-founded a recycling social enterprise.\n- Narrative note: The piece juxtaposes Uganda’s large youth population and unemployment challenges with individual initiative and social entrepreneurship.\n\nSource: Youth Voice: Faith Aweko of Uganda on her Future, IMF F&D\n\n---\n\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/03/youth-voice-faith-aweko-uganda"
    }
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    "Authors: JJUMBA MARTIN",
    "Published: March 1, 2020",
    "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:",
    "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."
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