Cooking Up Change:
Kampala Farm Turns Chicken into Jobs for Youth
Written by: Aguier Nyon | Photography by: Barbra Leni | Film by: Richard Mugambe and George Mukisa
Friday, September 19, 2025
Sarah Nanozi recalls vividly the despair that engulfed her household when a national lockdown was announced in 2019 at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mother of three had been surviving on manual chores in suburbs of Najjera, outside Uganda’s capital Kampala. Now jobless and a safety net, she faced each day with the suffocating weight of uncertainty.
Sarah Nanozi shares her journey of transformation
The pandemic had magnified the challenges she already knew too well: poverty, exclusion, and a future with no clear path forward.
“I was jobless, hopeless, and tired of crying,” she says as she takes a break from our conversation to attend to a growing number of customers at her food kiosk, now a magnet for the suburb’s youthful community.
Sarah Nanozi also trains other women in her community in making of different fast cuisines. Photo by Barbra Leni.
Nonozi’s breakthrough came from a training opportunity at Gudie Leisure Farm, a social enterprise which leverages the country’s agricultural potential to empower urban young people to create transformative enterprises.
They are trained in agriculture, animal husbandry, and entrepreneurship.
“I have been trained in white meat value addition. Poultry farmers supply their birds to me, which I fry at my stall, and sell in this busy community. Through that, I am able to make a profit and also help them sell at better prices,” she explains.
In this model, the farm is seeking to collaborate with other farmers, eliminate exploitative middlemen, and find better produce prices by delivering products directly to consumption points while addressing chronic youth unemployment.
Doreen Nankanja, who has been recently trained in chicken grilling. Photo by Barbra Leni.
A 2022 ILO report indicated that youth unemployment in Uganda was at 13.3%, and young women were disproportionately affected due to lower education access, caregiving burdens, and social norms.
Agriculture is poised to change Uganda’s employment landscape. However, a cocktail of socio-political challenges have barred it from transforming the country.
Yet according to UBOS, the sector employs about 70% of Uganda’s workforce, with women comprising the majority of that labor force, especially in rural areas yet still disproportionately disadvantaged.
However, the systemic dysfunction failing it is seen in the fact that it only contributes about 24% of GDP and despite the sector’s centrality to national development, the promise it holds for decent work, particularly for women, remains largely unfulfilled.
The concept of decent work, as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO), encompasses opportunities for productive employment that provide: fair income, workplace security, social protection, freedom to express concerns, equal treatment and opportunities
For many women in Uganda’s agricultural sector, these ideals remain distant. Women make up 76% of Uganda’s agricultural labor force, yet they own only 16% of the land they cultivate. Women earn 30–40% less than men for the same work across many agricultural activities.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, only 26% of employed women in rural areas are engaged in wage employment; the rest are in informal, often unpaid family work.
Only one in five women in agriculture has access to formal training or extension services. Women typically lack access to capital, with less than 10% of female farmers accessing credit from financial institutions.
These figures are more than just statistics. They are the harsh realities that women like Sarah, Doreen, and thousands of others have lived with. So why does decent work for Women matter?
What sets Gudie Leisure Farm apart is its mastery of the agricultural value chain and the potential it holds.
The enterprise also maintains control over the entire agricultural value chain, from feed production and livestock rearing to logistics and retail distribution. This not only ensures quality but creates employment opportunities across all levels of the system.
Those trained are also skilled enough to teach others in the community. On top of the training, the farm works with fabrication workshops to create cooking stoves and food kiosks that are given to trainees in soft loans.
Doreen Nankanja has been skilled in chicken production.
“I don’t even have to worry about where I’ll get the chicken from. It comes clean, fresh and on time,” says Doreen Nankanja, who has been recently trained in chicken grilling.
Eddy Ssenyonjo, 28, has been trained as a delivery boy.
“I had no job, I knew how to ride but had no motorcycle, not even a permit. I couldn’t afford one … Gudie Leisure Farm trained me on road safety, taught me how to ride professionally, helped me get a license and they didn’t ask for a single shilling,” he says.
Eddy Senyonjo Delivers Chicken at Doreen Nankanja’s stall. Photo by Barbra Leni.
Beyond the training, Senyongo is supported with fuel allowances, regular check-ins, and even food packages for his family. “I feel valued,” he says. “I’m not just a cyclist, I’m part of something bigger.”
Yet these are just a few of the 100,000 female youth that have been trained across Uganda ever since the firm struck a partnership with Mastercard Foundation under its Young Africa Works program.
As of 2024, 146 trainees graduated from the training program at Gudie Leisure Farm. Among these trainees, 52 gained skills in Poultry value addition, 51 in poultry management, and 43 in feed mills.
All the trainees received training in human resource management. According to the firm 70% of graduates report an increase in income after completing the training.
About 60% have acquired their own land, reshaping what rural wealth and independence can look like for a new generation of women. This has enabled them to start and grow their own businesses. Thousands have formed savings groups, improving financial inclusion and access to capital.
Despite Gudie’s progress, challenges persist, financing remains a hurdle, climate change threatens agricultural stability, and women in rural settings still face societal barriers.
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