Uganda’s youth unemployment rate is the highest in Africa. According to a recent study entitled Lost Opportunity? Gaps in Youth Policy and Programming in Uganda, compiled by ActionAid, Uganda’s youth unemployment is now 62 percent. According to The Guardian, The African Development Bank estimates it could be as high as 83 percent.

Educate! hopes to help change these disheartening stats. Educate! works to help Ugandan youth become community leaders and entrepreneurs.Founded by U.S. citizens Boris Bulayev, Eric Glustrom, and Angelica Towne, the non-profit organization is continuing to grow.

Bulayev, co-founder and executive director, is a  2007 alumni of Amherst College. He began working with Glustrom on Educate! in the beginning of his sophomore year of college in October 2004. During the summer of 2007, he launched the development of Educate!’s new leadership program. Glustrom, founder of Educate! and Watson University (the U.S.), has been recognized as an Ashoka fellow, Echoing Green fellow, and one of Forbes’ 30 social entrepreneurs under 30. Towne is Educate! co-founder and country director. A graduate from Middlebury College, she worked in education and Jamaica and the U.S. prior to coming to Uganda.

Angelica Towne tells AFKInsider how Educate! is working to change the lives of youth in Uganda.

AFKInsider: How did you come up with the idea for Educate!

Angelica Towne: Educate! was created by two U.S. college students, Boris Bulayev and Eric Glustrom, who wanted to make a difference in the lives of youth in Uganda. What began as a scholarship program for just a few Congolese youth refugees living in Uganda has developed into a widespread success operating in 54 schools in various areas of Uganda.

After completing university Bulayev and Glustrom spent time on the ground in Uganda. It became clear to both of them that even if every child in Uganda was given a scholarship, the mismatch between education and life after school would not be solved. Jobs did not exist and the only option for students was to start their own businesses. Schools just taught them to memorize facts and there simply were not ways for youth in Uganda to get the skills, experience and confidence they needed to start their own businesses and improve their livelihoods.

With this in mind, Bulayev and Glustrom started asking the youth they knew in Uganda what they needed most; they surveyed students about what was most vital to them. The answers all pointed to one thing: opportunity. What they needed were relevant skills they could learn and put to use in Uganda, a country with few job prospects and little means for formal employment. This sent Bulayev and Glustrom to the  drawing board and also helped them find the third piece to their founders puzzle — me.

I brought experience creating curricula in Jamaica and the U.S., and joined Educate! as a natural outgrowth of my passion for helping youth become changemakers in their communities.

AFKInsider: How does the program work?

Angelica Towne: Educate! delivers to 16-20 year-old youth within Ugandan schools a practical and relevant model of education comprised of a leadership and entrepreneurship course, interactive teaching, intensive mentorship, experience starting an enterprise, and access to out-of-school networks and resources. Through advocacy and direct service in schools, we are working to get this model to be part of the education system.

AFKInsider: How do you fund the program?

Angelica Towne: A combination of individual donors and grants.