The last couple of days, we’ve been with our team in Oruchinga – a tiny team that submitted hundreds of ideas to ARC’s staff idea contest, The Changemakers Award. This last two days they’ve made a couple of their ideas happen (see Young Scientists and Getting Off The Ground). Before we move along, the Oruchinga team had one more idea all about the youth.
Oruchinga settlement is small – only 6,000 people – but there are so many young people who live there. They don’t have a way to share their talents with the world, no venues or opportunities to show off what they can do. Our team thought they could do something about that, so they organized an Oruchinga Talent Show on Day 230 and invited everyone who lives and works in the settlement.
The show began about 2:30pm with a prayer and the Ugandan national anthem. And then the fun began. The room was packed, hundreds of camp residents had turned out to see what this was all about.
5 groups performed. There were singers, dancers, drummers, actors and even a fashion show. Each performance received a huge round of applause – it was certainly a huge boost for each of the youth groups to know their neighbors valued what they did. But it was also a boost to the entire community, a reminder of all of the talent that resides in their small community.
“Most people’s livelihoods in Oruchinga are based on farming, and that can be challenging with the weather we’ve had,” said ARC team member Mercy Kamayangi. “I hope these youth feel empowered to try to apply their skills and talents as another source of income.”
When the show ended, each team was presented with a goat or another prize for participating and sharing their talents with the community. “I’m so grateful for this opportunity for the youth of Oruchinga,” said Issa Chubaka, the youth chairperson in Oruchinga. “It is my hope to see them [the performers] using their talent as their sources of income, and to participate at a national level here in Uganda.”
