Eric tells us how the Better Migration Management programme gave him the knowledge to protect himself and his community from exploitation.
Eric knows what deception costs a family. His older brother was promised a managerial job in Kampala. What followed was something far darker. Lured through illegal routes, stripped of his national ID and phone, underfed and isolated, his brother was forced to guard a forest alone, with no qualifications, no support, and no way home. When he and others tried to reclaim their documents, they were tortured. Eric’s family spent what little they had to bring him back. It was not an isolated case. Many boys in their village had faced the same fate.
‘Before, I could have easily fallen into the same trap,’ Eric reflects. ‘But through the Better Migration Management programme, I’ve gained knowledge and skills that have completely changed my outlook. No one can lie to me the way they did to my brother.’
Supported by the British Council, the Better Migration Management (BMM) programme equips young people in vulnerable communities with the awareness, skills, and tools to protect themselves from exploitation and build sustainable livelihoods. For Eric and his neighbours, the programme addressed what he describes as their community’s greatest challenge - not lack of ambition, but lack of knowledge.
+7 million reached through safe migration advocacy campaigns
The transformation has been practical as well as protective. Eric is now planning to launch a bakery, channelling the skills he gained through the programme into a concrete path forward. The random calls still come with promises of high-paying jobs, targeting anyone who might be unaware. Eric is no longer that person.
But his ambitions extend beyond his own security. Having witnessed first-hand what trafficking does to a family, Eric is determined to use what he has learned to raise awareness in his community, ensuring that the knowledge the programme gave him travels further than his own doorstep.
‘I want to do more than just help myself,’ he says. ‘I want to share the skills I’ve learned so others don’t go through what my brother did.
In a village where opportunity has too often arrived wearing the mask of exploitation, Eric represents something the Better Migration Management programme was designed to create, a young person equipped not only to build his own future, but to safeguard others from losing theirs.
Our Impact Stories is a curated collection of individual stories showcasing the impact of British Council programmes across Arts and Culture, English and Schools Education, Higher Education, Non-Formal Education, and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) across Sub-Saharan Africa. From fashion entrepreneurs in Ethiopia and Kenya to educators in Rwanda, animators in Nigeria, and heritage preservationists in Zimbabwe, the book captures the breadth and depth of what our programmes make possible when ability meets opportunity.
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