Vicky Ajok is a 23-year-old female from Agnogno Ogengo Village in Kole District, Northern Uganda. She works as the Assistant Manager at Wind Wood Millers Limited Flash Dryer factory in Lira district. With this job, she earns a monthly salary of 180,000 UGX. The factory employs 11 full time workers and 20part time employees that include cassava peelers, manual laborers and also farmers whose labor is hired. “Working at the factory has given me a good life for I am greatly benefitting and making money. I am grateful for this opportunity made possible by the CAVA Project.” With this employment, Ajok is quite proud of her accomplishments. “I am able to pay my younger sisters school fees of 370,000 UGX required per term. She is in Senior 4 at TopStar Secondary School in Lira district. Personally, I have a 2acre cassava garden of the NASE 14 improved variety that I planted in march 2018.”  However, before the cassava business, Ajok was into livestock rearing that earned her some money. “I had 3 piglets and 8 goats. I sold off 2 of my piglets at 180,000 UGX.  I also sold all the 8 goats at 70,000 UGX and with the proceeds, I hired land at 280,000 UGX to grow my cassava.”

Ajok (standing) supervises laborers engaged in peeling fresh cassava root for processing at the factory

Ajok is among the beneficiaries of the seed initiative the factory adopted with backing from the CAVA Project. Through this initiative, over 400 youths in Lango sub region have attained high yielding disease tolerant cassava varieties at a subsidized fee of 15,000 UGX per bag of stems. These will be able to supply fresh cassava root to the factory, earn money but also have food at home. “CAVA has also greatly benefitted other youths that are now able to access good seed. It has opened assured market for them to sell their fresh cassava root. They are also able to cater for school fees, clear medical bills and enjoy other benefits. Others have even opened up businesses.”  She adds “I am also yet to earn more money when I begin supplying fresh root to the factory that buys at 120 UGX per kilo. I have seen that the stems business is quite profitable as well that is why I chose to grow cassava. Aside from trainings in GAPs that CAVA has extended to us, we have also been trained on quality control to obtain HQCF and with this knowledge and skills, in future, I want to supply processed quality chips to the factory so that I get more money.” Aside from cassava, she also, has a garden of soya bean that she earns from.

The factory staff at Wind Wood Millers Limited process HQCF, a product highly consumed by large industries in Uganda. Ajok (slightly bending) helps out in packaging the processed HQCF.

Ajok is struggling with transportation challenges since her home is quite a distance from work. Because of this, she plans to purchase a bicycle that to ease her transportation troubles. “I sometimes use a bicycle and this charges me 1000 UGX. When unavailable, I use a boda boda (motorcycle) and this charges me 2000 UGX per trip. When I calculated my transport fares I found that I spend a lot and that is why I want to buy a bicycle. I have already looked around and it will cost me 280,000 UGX. However, from my small savings, I have so far managed to pay 150,000 UGX.” Ajok hopes that by the end of the year, 2018 she will have the bicycle.

Her bigger dream is to save up enough money to go back to school and study Tourism and Hotel Management. “I dream of being somebody in life. Someone influential in society, and this opportunity at the factory is slowly getting me in reach of my dreams.” Ajok studied up to Senior 6 level at Secondary School. She could not further her education since her peasant parents could no longer afford it. She then embarked on a journey just like of any other youth out there- struggle to make ends meet.

Being young, thrilled, at her first job and seemingly inexperienced with handling money, Vicky has a plan. “Sometimes when you have money within reach, you can be tempted to use it anyhow, especially for less important things. I therefore intend to open up a personal savings bank account so that I properly manage my finances. I have taken on a lot of responsibilities and I want to be able to save up so that I can achieve bigger things in future.”

Ajok’s story is one relatable to lots of youth in Uganda today that are faced with life’s challenges and are looking for a better life through employment. Ajok is among the lucky ones. Her dreams are coming to life, thanks to the CAVA Project that has availed opportunities to the youth, women and men through beneficial community projects.  The Project facilitated the successful installation of two cassava factories in Northern Uganda; Windwood Millers Limited and Adyaka Wholesalers Limited in Lira and Apac districts respectively. CAVA Uganda has reached over 24,000 people engaged in the cassava value chain of processing, production and marketing. These include smallholder farmers, Community Processing Groups (CPGs), Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and aggregators in the project areas of Central, Eastern and Northern Uganda.

The CAVA project is implemented in five African Countries of Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) through the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, (NRI).