Odyek Haron: From NEET to Entrepreneur

Odyek Haron dropped out of school at age 16 because his parents could not afford his school fees. In Uganda, where Odyek lives, an estimated 4.3 million young people, 41% of youth ages 18–29, are classified as NEET—not in education, employment, or vocational training. Seeking work to support himself and his family, Odyek began to learn brickmaking from a friend, a relationship that led him to an entrepreneurship bootcamp from the JA Africa and the Z Zurich Foundation (ZZF).

The bootcamp was part of the JA-ZZF Social Equity Program (SEP), an initiative that seeks to reverse the NEET phenomenon by teaching young Africans skills to achieve financial independence and equal economic participation. In its pilot year, SEP served more than 10,000 beneficiaries in Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, and South Africa, delivering seminars and workshops both in person and through JA Africa’s Digital Entrepreneurship Education Program (JA DEEP).

Through SEP, Odyek and his teammates formed a company called Bed Mot. The bootcamps challenged participants to come up with solutions to the biggest problems in their communities, and Odyek and his team members turned their focus to plastic waste and litter. They wondered whether there was a way to turn plastic waste into something useful. When Odyek took his knowledge of brickmaking and proposed making plastic interlocking bricks, they had a brilliant idea. Then, by collecting and melting down plastic waste and pouring it into molds, Bed Mot started creating bricks for construction and landscaping.

Read more about SEP and Bedmot’s AYC journey on the JA Worldwide blog.