Yiiki Ivan Our Entrepreneurship Beneficiary Making Strides

IVAN YIKII, 25, RESIDENT OF PAJULU SUBCOUNTY, DRIWALA WARD, OMBU CELL, ARUA CITY

THE SKY PROJECT TRAINING WAS A BIG HAND BEHIND MY SUCCESS

‘Before the pandemic, I relied on my parents for support. I was not employed, I had no source of income and no running business. The waves of the Covid 19 pandemic worsened my condition, left me devastated and I lost hope in myself, my potential and I thought life was meaningless.’

Ivan Yiiki 25, is a youth of Pajulu Sub-County Driwala Ward, Ombu Cell in Arua City. He is a beneficiary our SKY project. About the Skilling Youth for Increased Employability – SKY Project: The Community enterprise identification, development and management Program is a development program that seeks to offer market-driven training to the marginalized youth groups i.e. teenage mothers, out of school youth, street youth and the unemployed youth fraternity of Arua district and its surrounding communities. Under this program falls the Skilling Youth (SKY) for Increased Employability by December 2022 project. The development of this project is hinged on situational facts and statistics that reflect the lamentable plight of young people in the district and surrounding communities particularly in the face of and amidst the ravaging and scavenging COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives of the project were to increase out-of-school youth employability through foundational livelihood development and life skilling, to steer mindset, change for success in the labour market, and to enhance the survival and growth of youth self-start ups in Arua. Yiiki’s Journey:

In July, 2022, before I attended the SKY Training, I opened up a small business in art and secretarial services i.e. binding, printing, and photocopy along Awindiri Pajulu Road. The name of the business is Eyevanny Arts Arua.

‘Before the SKY Training, I wasn’t able to differentiate between myself and the business. I saw myself as the business. I go home as the business and I show up as the business. Without me, the business could not operate. Secondly, I had no mentor to assist me to build a mindset of a business person. Furthermore, I was not keeping records of my business transactions, stock and books of accounts.’ I attended the SKY Training at Arua Hill Division and learnt vastly about business and entrepreneurship. After my training, I implemented the skills I had acquired to my business and made a number of changes to my business as follows;

1. I am able to advertise my business on the different platforms including social media, banners, flyers among others.
2. I am able to make for customers items that they need and deliver on time.
3. I keep records of my businesses ranging from recording sales, stock records and accounting records
4. I employed more persons to work with me in order to improve efficient delivery of our services and manage their payments without causing loss to the business.
5. I use the art of developing ideas in my business to add other items to the shop that can generate income. For example; I sell juice and snacks within the shop alongside the main businesses.

I am forever grateful to the European Commission, the Aga Khan Foundation and Feminature Uganda for the opportunity they gave me to thrive in my business. Yiiki was later on one of our winners of the seed funding under the project.