The Journey of Our Train the Trainer Program in Uganda
In early 2023, we embarked on an ambitious journey to launch the Train the Trainer program in Uganda. The vision was clear: promote gender equality and women's empowerment by training five former students to become paid trainers for Cameras For Girls. This initiative enhances their knowledge and skills and equips them with the tools to teach and empower others in their communities. As we reflect on this journey, we celebrate the numerous wins and acknowledge the challenges that have shaped our path up to this point. This blog shares the story of turning a dream into reality, culminating in the program's 4-day workshop in June 2024. However, the journey continues – over the next six months, we will transform these five young women into proficient paid trainers, further achieving our goals for gender equality in the male-dominated media spaces in Uganda.
Amina and the trainees during the 4- day workshop in Kampala, Uganda
Launching the Vision for the Train the Trainer Program in Uganda
When designing this new initiative for Cameras For Girls, we quickly realized we could only do this with the input of our stakeholders in Uganda. Their valuable insights gathered through surveys with our former and current students, our partner universities, media houses, and others were instrumental in carefully designing a program curriculum that would reach our goal of turning five former students into paid trainers for Cameras For Girls.
The reasons for doing this are just as important. For one, our founder and executive director, Amina Mohamed, is also our lead photography trainer, a practice that would likely be unsustainable in the long run. As we grow our reach across Africa, the need for more skilled photography trainers becomes increasingly evident. This expansion will increase our student base of learners and provide Amina the room to focus and expand to other countries, such as Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa.
Equipping The Trainees with Knowledge and Skills
When designing the Train the Trainer curriculum, which is very different from our flagship, year-long, 4-phase program, we recognized the skills these five trainees would need to have, such as advanced photography and storytelling skills, both in the written and visual form. However, they must also learn leadership and public speaking skills to draw them from their shells. We have found that many of our young women need more confidence. Growing up in a patriarchal society does not contribute to building their self-esteem. Through monthly leadership training with our partner Phenemonenal Women Global and bi-weekly public speaking mentorship with Toastmasters Lubowa Club in Uganda, they are sure to gain these essential skills, which will not only serve them as trainers for Cameras For Girls but also out in the world as they build their careers.
We took it one step further—we assigned each of our five students a dedicated mentor in Uganda. These mentors are crucial to keeping our girls accountable to the curriculum while supporting their journey from trainee to trainer. They can discuss their challenges with weekly meetings and get support to overcome them.
Finally, we recruited two local photographers to support Amina Mohamed, founder and executive director as the lead trainer to support the workshop and the 6-month curriculum. Miriam Watsemba, one of Uganda's top documentary photographers, co-trained with Amina during the 3-days in the classroom. She will also lead subsequent monthly sessions with the students to help them further define their storytelling skills using photography as the medium. We also have Badru Katumba, a Ugandan street photographer, who will teach the students about overcoming challenges in the field.
Celebrating Wins and Overcoming Challenges: The Journey So Far
We completed the initial workshop and two field days in early June. The three-day workshop was full of new learnings and aha moments for the students. Miriam and Amina taught new ways of "seeing the light" and advanced studies of composition while also teaching vital concepts, such as ethical photography and informed consent, which the students put into practice during a two-day field visit with Farmsell, a local NGO partner we engaged with early this year.
Due to our long-standing work in Uganda, forming partnerships and collaborations has become more straightforward. However, despite numerous discussions and efforts to find common ground, there needed to be more clarity in our conversations with a very popular camera brand in Africa. These gaps made it challenging to reach a conclusive decision, which impacted our decision to move forward with them as a partner. We hope those conversations can one day be resurrected, with both parties benefitting from the proposed partnership.
Building something abroad is never without its challenges, but how you deal with them provides lessons on moving forward. We decided to move ahead with the program implementation, recognizing that we were and are still reliant on funding for our programs. As we write this, we need funds, and we hope that the grants we have been busy writing will result in some much-needed reprieve. Is this unique to our charity? Absolutely not! With the worldwide financial landscape we live in and more and more charities needing funding, we are in the same boat as others, but it's how we pivot that will make the difference.
Achieving Gender Equality in Uganda's Media Spaces
As we progress through the next six months with an eye on the future, we will continue to report our findings. We aim to bring gender equality into Uganda's media spaces and increase our impact from 15 to 75 students annually. We will continue reaching out to local and international media houses to help our students elevate their skills, put them into practice with internships, and finally get them into paid jobs with pay equity.
Join Us in Empowering Uganda's Future Storytellers
We invite you to be part of this transformative journey. Your support can help us achieve our ambitious goals and make a lasting impact on gender equality in Uganda's media industry. Here's how you can get involved:
Donate: Your contributions will directly support our training programs, helping us reach more students and provide essential resources. See the button below!
Partner: If you represent a media house or organization, collaborate with us to offer internships and job opportunities to our graduates.
Advocate: Spread the word about our mission and the importance of gender equality in media. Share our blog and updates with your network.
Together, we can create a future where empowered women lead the way in storytelling and media.