Dickson Duku, 24 takes care of 11 family members at his home in Imvepi refugee settlement. At the time of their arrival in the settlement in 2017, the family lived in absolute poverty, lacking most of the basic needs like decent shelter, school fees, medical care, and adequate food.

This situation caused psychological distress to the family. When the EUFT/RED project implemented in a consortium with Enable, JEEP, and ICRAF was rolled out, Dickson was identified and trained in life skills for success, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, Village Savings & Loan Association methodology, and Lorena stove construction.

These trainings helped build his resilience to critically think and strategically plan for his big family. He identified challenges in his community and came up with solutions leveraging on skills learned from the RED project trainings.

“I used the practical lessons on energy stove construction and started supporting fellow refugees to construct them in their homes. I was able to earn shs 120,000. This money supported me to buy scholastic materials and food for the children,” says Dickson. 

His greatest turning point was when Save the Children gave him an opportunity to compete for the seed fund and was supported with a cash grant of shs 600,000 for livestock production and marketing.

“I bought 3 goats and constructed a shed for them and hired two-quarters of land at shs 170,000 where I planted vegetables. I was also in position to improve the diet of the home. My dream now is to hire two acres of land and increase food security.” he adds.

“I thank Save the Children and the European Union for the opportunity and support given to me in transforming our family background and other community members. May Almighty grant you more funds to support more community members in the future,” he adds.

The Response to Increased Environmental Degradation and Promotion of Alternative Energy Sources (RED) is a European Union Trust-funded project implemented in refugee hosting districts to address environmental degradation and related challenges.