June 23, 2026
Photo: Uganda
When Lucky lost her job as a teacher at a local early childhood development centre, the future she had been working toward seemed to disappear almost overnight.
Living in Nyakyanika Village in Uganda's Masindi District, Lucky and her husband were already struggling to support their five children, including a set of twins. Her husband's work as a lay leader in the local church provided only a small and irregular income, and without Lucky's salary the family found it increasingly difficult to pay for food, healthcare, and their children's education.
Like many families facing sudden financial hardship, they needed more than temporary assistance.
They needed a way to rebuild.
Turning Skills into Opportunity
That opportunity arrived through Kinvia's local partner, Child Rights Empowerment and Development Organization (CEDO), which offers vocational skills training, entrepreneurship support, and mentorship to help young people build sustainable livelihoods.
Lucky (on left in purple shirt) learned baking and business skills during an intensive, five-day training program
After hearing about the training on the radio, Lucky enrolled in a five-day skilling program. Of the different livelihood options available, she chose bakery production, recognizing the demand for affordable baked goods in her community.
She embraced the training with determination, mastering both the technical and business skills needed to launch her own enterprise.
With modest start-up capital provided after completing the program, Lucky opened a small bakery stall in a nearby trading centre, selling half cakes, mandazi (a popular East African fried bread), doughnuts, and other locally popular snacks.
Before long, she had a regular base of repeat customers, who returned for the quality and affordability of Lucky’s products.
Building More Than One Source of Income
For Lucky, the bakery was only the beginning.
Rather than spending all of her earnings, she reinvested part of her income to establish an eggplant garden, creating a second source of food and income for her family. By combining two complementary livelihood activities, she reduced her dependence on any single source of earnings while strengthening her family’s food security and their financial resilience.
Lucky in her eggplant garden.
Today, Lucky is helping meet her family's daily needs and ensuring that all five of her children attend school more consistently. What began as one small business has become the foundation for greater stability and a renewed sense of possibility.
Lucky's story reflects an important lesson for families in Uganda and elsewhere. Economic resilience is rarely a matter of chance. It starts with practical skills, adds careful planning and wise investment, and mixes in the determination and confidence needed to keep building a better future — one opportunity at a time.
The initiatives described in this article are generously funded by The Slaight Family Foundation's NGO Emergency Support Initiative. We are grateful for their support.
