Uganda, warmly welcomed the project team on its soil on the 26th of February. Different from Ethiopia, this time, the agenda included Higher Education Institutions. During the first days of March, the project team had a set of meetings with university officials at the Kyambogo University and at the Kampala International University (KIU), both based in Kampala, to formally introduce themselves and to finalize details of the training seminars in the institutions.
The first training seminar began at the Kyambogo University on the 4th-5th of March attracting 20 board members and academic staff and appr. 100 students. At KIU, there was an impressive turnout of 75 board members and academic staff and appr. 310 students for the seminars held on 11th -13th of March. The last HEI training took place at Busitema University, Tororo in Eastern Uganda on 1st – 3rd April. The first day, the training attracted 15 board members and academic staff and 100 students for the last two days. Separately, the two groups of participants were introduced to Erasmus+ programmes relevant to them under KA1 and given information about how to get involved. For the academic staff sessions, the team focused on sharing information about several partnership opportunities with European Universities while for the students’ sessions, the team concentrated on the Erasmus Mundus scholarship opportunities.
The second set of trainings in Uganda was targeted at youth workers from different CSOs within Kampala area. The first training targeted 40 youth workers from about 10 organizations and took place at Kyambogo University. Thanks to the great collaboration with Vijana Kwa Afrika, Afrinype Uganda and Afrika Youth Movement Ugandan Hub, WE AfriHug project was able to train and build the capacity for youth workers and their organizations. At the end of the theoretical training, participants were divided into groups based on their interests and line of work for project simulation. On the last day, each group presented its project and received useful feedback from the WE AfriHug project team. To mark the end of the training, participants reflected on what they learnt during the training and were awarded with certificates in a colorful outdoor ceremony.
The second training was a collaboration with MenEngage Uganda and took place at Uganda national museum. Both trainings were particularly special as they included participants from various interest groups including youth and children; single women and orphaned children; people with disabilities, social and health workers from different fields; and policy makers. The agenda for the CSOs included: Project Management; introduction to Erasmus+ and its platforms such as ECAS and the Distance Calculator; networking and “getting to know each other” activities; crowd-funding; Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees and break-out sessions for skills such as budgeting, pitching and communication.