When a truck passed by inviting youth to learn a skill for free, Niyigena’s future changed forever
On a sunny afternoon, I visit Nyanza Textile Industries Limited (NYTIL), one of Uganda’s largest textile and garment factories in Jinja, and the moment I step onto the floor, I’m met by the steady hum of sewing machines.
Young workers lean over neatly arranged pieces of fabric, their hands moving with focused precision.
Among them, I spot 20-year-old Alice Niyigena, a Congolese refugee who has turned the challenges of her past into a promising new life.
Niyigena arrived in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement in southwestern Uganda in 2018, with her parents and five younger siblings after war broke out in their village in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As the firstborn, she remembers the difficult transition vividly.
“We left everything behind,” Niyigena recalls. “In DRC, I was studying, but in Uganda my family couldn’t afford school fees. I stayed home and helped in the garden. I felt like my future had stopped.”
Her turning point came unexpectedly.
“One afternoon in 2024, a truck from Finn Church Aid passed through my neighbourhood, announcing opportunities for young people to learn a skill for free,” Niyigena recalls.
“I listened from my compound, and I felt so excited. I knew this could be the chance I had been waiting for. The next day I went to the FCA office in Rwamwanja,” she says, “I told myself, this might be my only chance.”
She then enrolled for a tailoring course and completed a three-month attachment with a local artisan under the Refugee and Host Community Youth Empowerment & Transformation Initiative (RETI), implemented by Finn Church Aid (FCA) Uganda in partnership with Muni University and supported by the Mastercard Foundation.
Needle, thread and a new beginning
In April 2025, Niyigena received another life-changing call. FCA Uganda was offering her a chance to interview for a job placement at NYTIL.
When the call came back, it carried the news she had been hoping for. She had been selected to go and work at NYTIL.
“I was scared to leave home,” she admits. “But I was also excited. When FCA told me they would support my journey, I felt safe.”
FCA helped her with all the necessary documents, including opening a bank account and enrolling in the National Social Security Fund, before taking her and the other youth to Jinja in April 2025.
Her first month’s salary was UGX 220,000 (USD 58), which she used to buy her first smartphone to stay in touch with her family.
“That phone felt like freedom,” she laughs. “It connected me back home.”
As she mastered NYTIL’s electric sewing machines, her confidence and earnings grew. By November 2025, she earned UGX 750,000 (USD 197) after consistently meeting her production targets.
Building a life for her family
With her income, Niyigena has quietly transformed life back home. She has bought three goats, two pigs, and several chickens, providing an important source of income for her family and supporting her siblings’ education.
“Some of my salary helps pay school fees for my brothers and sisters,” Niyigena says proudly. “It makes me happy knowing they can study again.”
She also joined a local savings group, setting aside UGX 50,000 (USD 13) every month, hoping to buy her own tailoring machine soon.
“I want to work hard, save more, and then go back to Rwamwanja to start my own tailoring business,” she says. “I want to be independent and help other girls like me.”
Back home, her mother speaks with a mix of pride and relief.
“At first I feared for her, she was young and far from us,” her mother shares. “But we trusted FCA. Now Alice is supporting the whole family. She has changed our home.”
From a refugee girl who once stayed home because school was out of reach, Alice now contributes to her family’s livelihood and dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.
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Text & Images: Linda Kabuzire / FCA