By Samyl Sabunyo Masiga

Under the SIYEP programme, in partnership with AFARD and the Mastercard Foundation, the Fashion, Art and Design department equips young people in our communities with practical, market-ready skills. This quarter, we standardized four skills manuals: Ceramics & Pottery, Dance Performance & Choreography, Graphic Design & Visual Communication, and Sculpture Creation & Production. These give trainees a consistent, quality learning path.

We have also prepared studio and training equipment for Art & Design and Music, Dance & Drama, covering furniture, ceramics, recording and AV gear, and dance infrastructure. This means trainees learn on proper tools.

In sericulture, our field work is opening a new economic pathway for local communities. We are exploring how silk can be processed into fashion and apparel, and how it can be marketed through fashion shows, music videos and film. The aim is a silk-embracing economy that starts in Mukono and can scale internationally.

Skills today, livelihoods tomorrow.

Contributions to SIYEP and sericulture

SIYEP (Skills Development Officer, Fashion, Art and Design, TRIDI)

• Developed four standardized skills manuals, with front matter and a presentation deck, in SIYEP green and gold branding.
• Prepared procurement documentation across 18 equipment categories under budget line 40094 (studio furniture, instruments, recording, DJ gear, ceramics, dance infrastructure, AV).
• Sourced and compared suppliers for Art & Design and Music, Dance & Drama equipment.
• Produced branded justification documents for SIYEP T-shirts, and handled quotation-gathering logistics.
• Supported institutional documentation: activity completion reports and service contracts.

Sericulture

• Works as a field officer in sericulture under TRIDI.
• Developed knowledge in processing T-shirts and apparel from silk.
• Maintained and sequenced sericulture accountability records, aligning procurement-to-delivery of mulberry and promotional items.
• Authored an abstract for ISCC-2026 (Chennai, Nov 2026) on silk processing, trading and marketing, proposing a scalable silk-embracing economy.

Research

• Master’s research at Makerere University on narrative-driven illustration as a visual communication strategy, including Lady Rhinos: Built Different, which reimagines rugby in Uganda.