LAUNCHING THE GLOBAL SHAPERS, KAMPALA HUB.
Despite the heavy down pour on earlier in the Thursday afternoon, the Shapers were ready to take the evening by the horns the entire 28th August 2014, evening as the Kampala Hub was launched. The venue was already set up waiting for everyone to walk in. The chairs sat looking at the white perimeter wall that acts as the projector screen at the venue. We waited with anxiety and personally, I looked forward to the induction. We had constantly met in numerous meetings via the group discussions on email and whatsapp. Lorna connected us to The Hub, Kamwokya where we met with friends who came in as witnesses.
At around 1920 Hours EAT, we kicked off. Ruth Aine, our assistant curator, despite the delayed response of the projector, opened up the event. We wanted to break away from the seminar setting as had been arranged, we sat in a circle. We wanted to engage with our audience. The theme for the night was “Our role as Citizens in shaping a better Uganda.” It also served as the induction of the new Shapers; Lorna Okeng, David Benon Kangye and Gloria W. Nanfuka.
Not even the cold evening could stop us from having a good time at the evening roll out. The question to the audience was to give their interpretation of the term ‘Global Shapers’. As an ice breaker, we shared video clips of different Shapers explaining how and why they came to learn of Global Shapers.
“I heard some of you introduce yourselves as shapers, then what are we?” asked Najjat Jauhara, one of the guests. A number of questions came up in this line since many thought it was another non- government organization ready to dish out money. But Ruth made it known to all that Global Shapers is about social change; doing something for the community.
As the night grayed on, and the wind whispering through the skin, bites were shared as we watched the Abuja Hub video. In between the breaks, a number of questions were asked. Most of the people in attendance were youths below the age of 30. Their concern centered on how they could become part of the Community. “It sounds interesting, how do I join?” asked Joan who kept asking question after question. “I don’t have a twitter handle and rarely check my mails, does that mean I can’t be part of the Global Shapers?” chipped in Joel who opened up a twitter account thereafter.
“Most of our discussions are online because it’s a ‘Global Shapers’ world. We don’t only communicate with the people here. You need to be on line regardless,” responded Donald.
As we wound up the evening, we asked our audience to share with us their take home information about the Global Shapers and Joel Yiga summarized it saying, “Every one’s ability is needed in Global Transformation.” This, he based on Nixon’s story that he shared as an activity that was carried out by the Global Shapers to mark the day of the African Child in Mityana.
All were eager to learn more about the next project of the Kamapala Hub, which thay definitely wanted to be a part. Live tweets of the event went on and on with the #GSHKla hastag. @KampalaHub was launched as the official tweeter handle for the hub. Then the audience disbanded in a one on one with the Shapers.