Thank you for taking time to read our story and to donate to this fundraiser. You are our superhero!

This is Infinity Ideas Network (IIN) a youth lead community based organisation in rural Uganda - Masaka district envisioning to help Deaf and heard of hearing people in Uganda get into employment and stay there.
We are seeking funds to implement an Entrepreneurship and livelihood skills development project targeted for Deaf youth in the community. The project is aimed to empower Deaf youth to develop in various livelihood and entrepreneurial skill sets including:

• developing interpersonal skills,
• developing financial management skills,
• empowering them to create their own jobs and/or access employment,
• strengthening networking systems among youth and other development partners, and
• Creating a platform where more Deaf youth can be empowered with knowledge and skills to advocate for their rights to employment and other Human Rights.
• To train employers/ partners in basic work Ugandan Sign Language (USL) to ease communication at workplace.
• provide seed capital funding in terms of materials for those who want to be self employed

This application is to fund a pilot programme for fifty (50) participants, with the intention of improving and expanding the project following a successful pilot. Through this project, we aim to “Include” and promote gender and disability equality, to teach the youth marketable skills, allowing them to “Innovate” in their career paths, and to “Influence” them to take a lead in their journey of self- independence and sustainability. PROBLEM STATEMENT

Disabled people are usually the last to be hired and the first to be fired. Potential employers consider their disability over their qualifications, skills, and ability to develop on the job. Deaf youth are thus typically relegated to working only in Disabled People Organisations (DPOs) and in the informal sector, because the chances of gaining employment in the public service and/or mainstream organisations and individual businesses are very limited. According to the 2014 Census, there are 1,083,456 Deaf persons in Uganda.

Many of these live in rural areas with limited access to job opportunities, social services, and amenities while those in urban areas are at high risk of exploitation, truancy, and behavioural crisis. A majority of these persons have no access to government development initiatives. The vast majority of Deaf youth do not attend primary school nor acquire viable livelihood and entrepreneurial skills as there are hardly any appropriate post primary vocational schools in the country. Even for those who do have the opportunity to access education, the majority do not complete their primary or vocational education. It is therefore a double hurdle for Deaf youth who study and graduate, overcoming great odds and then face being shunned by the job market. Worse still, there are hardly any employment empowerment projects created specifically for the Deaf. The labour market presents multiple specific hurdles for Deaf youth to overcome. These range from physical access to employment locations and access to information about vacancies, to a lack of self-confidence to seek out opportunities, discrimination, and how mainstream Ugandan society perceives them. Compounding this, most institutions, organisations, and businesses are headed or controlled by hearing people who typically know little or even nothing about Deaf people. Many believe that Deaf people are incapable of performing well on the job, while or course Deaf persons may be far more qualified than their hearing counterparts when seeking employment. At a familial level, Deaf children and youth are often under the care of poverty stricken and fragile grandparents or guardians who are equally overstretched in remote villages, with little or no support from their usually urban-based biological parents and relatives. Many Deaf youth are thus engulfed in inequalities, misinformation, limited opportunities, and exploitation. With your support, we intend to help out the Deaf community as explained above. Several proposals have been written including this and we are looking for donor organisations, individuals to pitch the ideas to for developments and partnerships.

Thank you so much :)

Infinity Ideas Network (IIN)