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

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Youth Voice: Faith Aweko of Uganda on her Future, IMF F&D](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/03/youth-voice-faith-aweko-uganda)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/03/youth-voice-faith-aweko-uganda/index.md)
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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: JJUMBA MARTIN
- Published: March 1, 2020

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### Background
- 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.

### Motivation and personal trajectory
- 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.

### Social enterprise: Reform Africa
- 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.

### Outcomes and framing
- 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*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/03/youth-voice-faith-aweko-uganda_