Uganda’s leading external labor recruiting company, Middle East Consultants (MEC) has taken youth empowerment to another level by encouraging their own to set up developmental projects.
In a nationwide visit campaign launched mid last year by the company’s management, directors track and visit the successful candidates who went abroad and came back to put up developmental projects.
MEC Directors have so far visited many of their people that they took abroad for work.
MEC Directors are also giving financial support to their former candidates to finish the undertaken projects.
This move is aimed at encouraging and motivating more youth to develop and encourage relatives to put the money sent from abroad to good use.
In the latest tour, MEC directors visited some of the projects for the company beneficiaries with our reporter and the stories decoded in this feature are amazing and inspiring.
Obbo Zephaniah Builds Entebbe International Dream School
When you reach Entebbe International School located at Bugonga in Entebbe, you may be convinced to think that it is one of the best upcoming schools being set up by one of the city tycoons or an investor to tap into Uganda’s virgin education industry but you will easily get shocked upon getting facts.
According to Obbo’s big brother Julius Othieno who is the care taker of the school, Obbo went to Abu Dhabi in 2014 and has since set his goal of working there for 10 years.
Entebbe International School
“Obbo has been very exemplary at work and has always excelled and rated as the best employer of the year while there. He sends money here and we have managed to develop this facility that will live long even after us,” explained Othieno before adding that; “The plan is big because it is supposed to be a 3 storied building and Obbo has set up a strategy of working there for at least 10 years in order to achieve his dream.
“We make sure that the money is managed well so that when he comes back, he will appreciate whatever is on ground.”
Asked about the challenges, Othieno says it’s very tricky in that its capital intensive and requires a lot of creativity to minimize costs.
“Any challenge that comes we try to make sure we minimize and get over it in a very creative way but it’s very challenging since the school is still incomplete to the desired level and standards.”
“For this year we have a budget close to Shs50million to do the finishing and we must raise it because it’s Obbo’s target for this year. As he works, he has to keep sending money on a monthly basis as we try to do whatever little that can be done.”
According to Othieno, the school for the first year 2017 was able to sit 7 candidates for PLE and 5 candidates came in division one with the best getting aggregate 6, the rest in division two with aggregate 14.
Othieno encourages parents to bring their kids to the school since they are improving day by day and affordable.
Othieno says he works with his brother Obbo mainly in terms of financial management, Strategy and Plan setting.
The two talk on a daily basis for purposes of planning and transparency.
He believes that if they put in extra effort to the project of 10 years, they can achieve it within 5 five years.
MEC Finance director Fred Keitongo appreciated the two brothers and encouraged every young Ugandan who goes to work abroad through his company (MEC) to have a vision written down on the paper before they fly out of the country.
Keitongo also encouraged parents to be cautious of their children’s funds and plan for them as they send in their money from abroad.
Keitongo handed over Shs1million as contribution to Obbo’s school project.
Benon Kunywana Aspires to Become Bujuko’s Strong Land Lord
Benon Kunywana,30 left Uganda in 2014 to go and work as a security guard in Abu Dhabi under Securi Guard Middle East Company and this was after he heard heard an advert on radio and TV stations.
Kunywana earns a monthly salary of 3400dirham which is equivalent to Shs3.4million that he has since saved to come back in his first vacation and put up spacious rental houses in Bujuuko town Wakiso district.
According to Kunywana, it wouldn’t have been that easy for an ordinary boy like him by then to fly abroad for work.
He hails MEC for helping many young Ugandans and stressed that they should ignore wrong information that things are impossible once one gets into United Arab Emirates.
“We don’t need guns to do security guard jobs in the United Arab Emirates and in fact it’s more of customer care and we are trained right away when we reach there on how to do our jobs,” Kunywana says before revealing that he acquired a certificate from the National Security Institute of UAE in which he was the best student in his class.
Ugandans have always emerged the best performers even at work among other countries like Nepal, Philippines, Saudi Arabia and many more.
Kunywana currently has a plot of land in Bujuuko town on which he has established a structure with four rental units.
The structure is in its last stage of completion and expects to finish everything before he goes back for a two year contract.
Kunywana expects to earn at least Shs1.2million from this project.
Benon Kunywana’s house under construction in Bujuuko Town
MEC Managing Director, Gordon Mugyenyi thanked Kunywana for not disappointing his parents and the company (MEC) that helped him secure a job.
Mugyenyi cautioned the public against rumors that Ugandans abroad are suffering challenging them to learn from a young man like Kunywana. Mugyenyi contributed Shs1million towards Kunywana’s rental housing project.
Kunywana called upon all unemployed youth to register with Middle East Consultants and utilize the chance upon availability.
Arinaitwe Eddy of Buloba Defies All Odds to Put Back Smile To Widowed Mum
Arinaitwe Eddy is an orphan who lost his dad when he was in Senior one while they lived in Kamwokya and his mum tried all she could to raise him and his siblings.
This much needed effort saw Eddy graduate from Kyambogo University with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Fine Art.
However, one year down the road Eddy failed to get a job after campus and it’s at this point that his mum overheard Middle East Consultants advertising jobs abroad on radio but was discouraged by friends who told her that those jobs were fake and being advertised by conmen.
She says, she could not stand seeing her son seated at home with no job so she advised her son to go to Muyenga and give it a try.
Eddy went to Muyenga and got all details.
The mum rushed to Opportunity Bank and secured a loan of Shs5million to be repaid in one year and they used the money to send Eddy to Abu Dhabi where he works as a security guard.
On reaching in the United Arab Emirates, Eddy did not forget the situation back home so he immediately started sending money home and the mum bought a plot of land in Buloba-Kilinda at Shs15million.
With hard work, Eddy sent more money home which was used to put up a residential house.
Eddy’s mum says that the project became slow recently and went to Middle East to seek for assistance since he had watched clips on TV of Middle East Consultants directors visiting and supporting projects of their former candidates.
On their visit to Eddy’s home, Middle East Consultants Finance Director Fred Keitongo contributed Shs1million towards completion of the house.
Keitongo thanked Eddy’s mum for supporting his son’s vision and being a strong lady to implement his son’s dream.
Keitongo also encouraged other parents to support their children who are working abroad so that they can put their money to good use.
Eddy’s mum called upon all parents to take their children to Middle East Consultants for job opportunities abroad and advised youth not to undermine jobs but to take on any opportunity available.
Kigula Eric Left Teaching Job for Abu Dhabi Supervision Opportunity
After realizing that earnings from his job could not sustain the family and their needs, Kigula Eric of Kitemu Masaka road and a former teacher at Luwero girls abandoned his teaching job to go and seek for greener pasture in Abu Dhabi (UAE) where he worked as customer service personnel and later a supervisor for five years.
Kigula who was taken to Abu Dhabi by Middle East Consultants says he first went to work as a security guard thinking he will use a gun only to reach there and find that it was actually a different story because the job is to welcome people with a smile.
He told this reporter that his wife Jane Kigula is his manager back home whom he sends money and she implements all their family plans but he also ensures that he comes once every year to check on his family and progress of their projects on his own air ticket.
Kigula hosts Middle East Consultants MD Gordon Mugyenyi in his Kitemu new built home
Jane Kigula says she cannot find enough words to thank Middle East Consultants for having helped the husband to go find a job abroad because their life has since greatly improved to better considering the situation they were previously living in.
Jane advised Ugandans to shun the rumor that Ugandans are being tortured.
She says Ugandans should wake up find jobs because his husband has never complained of any negative situation for the last five years he has worked in Abu Dhabi.
She encouraged women to always keep away from bad groups and company because these groups tend to divert fellow women from focusing on developmental matters and end up messing their marriages especially in situations when their husbands have left here to go and look for money abroad.
Jane says she talks with the husband on a daily basis on WhatsApp and on phone and they have been able to put up a good home together.
Middle East Consultants Boss Gordon Mugyenyi hailed the good management skills Kigula’s wife had exhibited because there are few wives who have been left behind and have performed to Janes levels of expectations.
Before Mugyenyi handed over Shs1million towards buying paint for the completion of the house, he called upon all ladies to emulate Jane as an example and support their husbands to develop their families because many ladies tend to go into other funny things once their husbands leave Uganda for work.