Meet Ambrose Orot, age 23, Kampala

Ambrose is 23 years old and is a member of a cooperate enterprise being run by a group of AIDS-orphaned youth in Kampala, Uganda.

Like many other AIDS-orphaned youth, Ambrose has siblings in his care and is responsible for providing for his family with little education and training and almost no prospects for stable employment.

Early 2011, Ambrose was selected to take part in the CAP/AIDS Safe Livelihoods project by our partner, Needy Support Centre. He was grouped with other orphans and provided with small business training. After completing the training, Ambrose and his peers worked together to develop a business plan for their new enterprise in which they proposed starting a piggery.

Together, NSC and CAP/AIDS Uganda were able to find some land, donated by a neighbouring NGO who wanted to contribute to the project. The land has been provided rent-free.

In April 2011, Ambrose and the team were provided with four pigs (one of which was already pregnant to start as well as a small grant which they used to build the pigpens. A few weeks later they had their first batch of piglets, 10 in all, but unfortunately lost 7 to a night-time raid by dogs. The group quickly decided to amend their budget to allow for hiring of night security to ensure the safety of future litters. The group keeps the piglets  for 3 months to fatten up before sale in market where each piglet can fetch up to 150,000 Ugandan Shillings (approximately $60).

The piggery operation is located about 7km from where most of the youth live with their families. Due to the long commute, the group has developed a duty roster. This way only one or two group members travels to the piggery on a given day and everyone knows exactly which tasks they are responsible for each week.  The profit, after the expenses incurred during fattening, is shared equally among the 8 members of the cooperative.

When asked about his experience as a Piggery owner/operator so far, Ambrose says: "The distance is far, but now that we have a roster, I am only coming two times in a week. I hope soon that we can purchase more pigs as we can easily expand our space for housing them. I am glad for this opportunity so that we can earn a good profit from the pigs for our families."