Starting up a business is typically a challenging process and is hard for both the abled and the disabled. Thus, the barriers that entrepreneurs with disabilities face can create further challenges throughout the process. Many of these barriers are deep-rooted social constructs and personal views while others are more economic in nature.

Finding XY is working with Light For The World (LFTW) to provide entrepreneurship training to persons with disabilities and linking them to financing opportunities. LFTW is a Disability and Development organization with a focus on Eye Health, Inclusive Education and Economic Empowerment. In Uganda LFTW runs Child Eye Health and Inclusive Economic Empowerment programs. 

The Mainstreaming Ambition – Vulnerable Youth in Business Project is a 3-year project running from 1st of January 2021 to 31st of December 2023. It is implemented by LFTW as project lead together with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD), Federation of Uganda Employers (FUE), and Standard Chartered Bank. The project aims to generate decent work for vulnerable youth with a focus on young women and youth with disabilities through either waged employment or self-employment. 

The project objectives are:

  • To create self-employment for 560 vulnerable youth, with at least 280 (50%) young women and 224 (40%) youth with disabilities.
  • To match 30 youth with disabilities (at least 15 of them being women) with a decent waged-job within an organization or company.
  • To Improve 44 jobs: 14 jobs for Disability Inclusion Facilitators (DIFs) by expanding service portfolio, and 30 jobs on working conditions.

Apart from the above outcomes, overall, the project will reach 835 youths who will have increased their employability and ability to work, by having either/or:

  • Participated actively in 80 group enterprises producing/servicing for Ugandan markets
  • Accessed finance in 60 enterprise group loans for start-up capital through the YLP.
  • Developed 70 viable and investment ready business plans
  • Participated in employability training
  • Signed 40 internship/work placement contracts, which led to 30 employment contracts.

Eligible sectors: 

  • Small Holder Farming Business Models  
  • Bottom-Up solar Energy Innovation 
  • Beehives to Market
  • Clean Cookstoves Production or Distribution 
  • Poultry Farming to Market Models