Perched on a makeshift scaffold, 22-year old Lucy Lenia fits mortar, a wet mixture of sand and cement, between two bricks at the top of a one-room house. The house, being built by trainees on the Bricklaying and Concrete Practice course, is almost ready for roofing, and this is the last line of bricks the group is setting.

Working among a group of boys, all dressed in overalls and helmets, it is difficult to notice her. She does not stand out. But a closer look at the group and the soft, curved features of her face, the braids escaping through the sides of the helmet, draw attention to her.  

Lenia is an only child, and grew up with her peasant parents in a village in Arua district, Northern Uganda. When she completed primary education, her parents sent her to secondary school in the town, where she stayed with an aunt. However, because the family did not have enough money, during the school holidays Lenia would lay bricks and sell them to buy scholastic materials like pens and books. She, however, had to drop out of school after completing her lower secondary (O’ Level) examinations.

“I wanted to continue with school, but I did not pass my O’ Level examinations,” she says. “I was ready to repeat the class for another attempt at getting a better grade, but my parents were no longer able to pay my school fees.” While at home pondering what to do with her life, Lenia got to hear of the skills training opportunity at Siripi early this year (2018) and enrolled.  She explains that while most of the girls chose tailoring or catering, she went with Bricklaying and Concrete Practice, a decision made with the encouragement of the Principal of the skills training centre.

“We encourage women to join male-dominated trades like carpentry, construction and welding,” Tito Geoffrey Droma, Principal of the youth skills training centre, explains. “There is nothing a man can do which a woman cannot.”

Droma explains that previously, it was difficult to get any woman on either carpentry, bricklaying and concrete practice or welding, but on the current intake they have ladies in all three. And this is something that they have intentionally done. Droma thinks that having a woman like Lenia on a construction course sends a message to both women and men.

“Women may think that they cannot do bricklaying and concrete practice but if they see a fellow woman doing it they will think again. Lenia is becoming a source of inspiration to other women,” he says.

He also thinks that Lenia’s presence on the course will enable young men view women in a completely different light, since, as her course instructor attests, there is nothing she cannot do – she can mix mortar, push a wheelbarrow full of bricks, scale buildings and much more.

Derrick, a refugee from South Sudan, says he was surprised to see Lenia on the course and did not think she would last a week. But she proved him wrong.

And the environment at the skills training centre is facilitating. “We do not give anyone exceptional treatment or accept bullying. All the trainees are encouraged to live together as one, without drawing attention to differences in gender, nationality or even tribe,” Droma says.

Indeed as a Ugandan living in Rhino Camp refugee settlement, Lenia is one of many Ugandans benefiting from the Support Programme for Refugee Settlements in Northern Uganda (SPRS-NU), funded by the European Union Trust Fund. The programme is designed to benefit 70% of the refugees and 30% nationals, adhering to the Refugee and Host Population Empowerment (ReHoPE) strategy. This, in essence, promotes peaceful co-existence between refugees and the Ugandans people hosting them while ensuring that the situation of Ugandans who may not have been accessing social services is also uplifted.

Lenia’s training is almost coming to an end, after which she will go for internship to try out her skills in a practical environment.

“I have learnt everything I need to build a house,” she says. “When I graduate, the first thing I am going to do is build a brick house for my parents.”

The training will not only enable Lenia show gratitude to her parents but also set her on a course of self-reliance, for besides the bricklaying and construction skills, which will help her find or create her own employment, she has been equipped with entrepreneurship and life skills. She is a confident young lady who is able to set her goals, work towards them, and manage her money in an efficient and economical way. And this is one of the objectives of SPRS-NU: to sustainably improve people’s standard of living.

About the programme
Siripi Youth Skills Centre, run by Welthungerhilfe in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement, received funding from Enabel through the European Union Trust Fund for Africa’s Support Programme for Refugee Settlements in Northern Uganda to equip 300 youth, including women and girls, with employable skills that would help improve their livelihoods. The centre is one of five that Enabel signed agreements with to train 1,480 refugee and Ugandan youth.