Don Bosco Bombo Initiative Brews Success: Vulnerable Graduates Launch Wine Businesses After Business Skills Boost 🍷

Kampala, Uganda – September 29, 2025 – A critical new program has successfully bridged the gap between technical expertise and commercial viability for vulnerable graduates of the Don Bosco vocational training center. The initiative, focused on Business Skills Training and Coaching, is already empowering young entrepreneurs to establish and manage their own small-scale wine-making businesses, turning technical skills into sustainable livelihoods.

While Don Bosco’s technical courses provide valuable, hands-on training, many vulnerable graduates including those from low-income households and orphans often struggle to translate their skills into viable businesses. The missing ingredient, according to program organizers, was essential business acumen.

“Vulnerable graduates lack access to the foundational knowledge of business planning, financial management, marketing, and legal compliance,” a program note outlined. “Without these skills, they are unable to leverage their technical expertise to create viable businesses, leading to high rates of unemployment and a return to poverty.”

This training program was specifically designed to mitigate this issue, transforming a passion for wine-making into profitable enterprises and directly addressing the goal of enhancing the socio-economic well-being of the beneficiaries.

The intensive training and coaching program covered all essential aspects of launching a small business, structured across four core modules and supported by personalized mentorship.

The curriculum focused on practical, actionable skills to ensure graduates could navigate the complexities of running a business:

Module 1: Business Fundamentals: Covered an introduction to entrepreneurship, identifying market gaps, and crucial Business Planning and Model Canvas development.

Module 2: Financial Management: Provided training in Financial Literacy, including basic accounting, pricing strategies, budgeting, record-keeping, and understanding profit/loss analysis, essential for securing startup capital.

Module 3: Marketing & Sales: Focused on building a strong brand, effective Digital Marketing strategies, and establishing sales channels for their artisanal products.

Module 4: Legal & Compliance: Educated graduates on the necessary steps for registering a business, obtaining licenses, and fulfilling tax obligations.

Beyond the classroom, the initiative’s most transformative objective was the individualized coaching and mentorship. Facilitators worked closely with each graduate on Personalized Business Plan Development, helping them refine their businesses and create a detailed operational strategy.

Mulangira Alex, a participant appreciated the training because he had begun a business and it had collapsed due to limited knowledge of it. He said ‘I am going back to start afresh and implement what I have learnt here today, it was been very insightful.’

By providing this crucial blend of technical and commercial expertise, the Don Bosco initiative is fostering a new generation of self-reliant entrepreneurs, ensuring that their vocational skills directly translate into profitable ventures and long-term socio-economic stability. The future, it seems, is vintage for these new business owners.

This training was made possible with funding from Austrian Development Cooperation and Jugend Eine Welt which is part of a larger programme GENDER MATTERS for GREEN TVET that is running in 5 Don Bosco TVET Centres in Rwanda and Uganda.