I am Motivated by Success Stories; Social entrepreneur Emmanuel Wabwire

Growing up from a simple and humble background, that didn’t obstruct Wabwire Emmanuel from dreaming and painting a colorful future for himself. The 1990 born wanted to be pilot but instead became a Social Entrepreneur who now advocates for the social well-being of the community.

Born to the late Mr. Wabwire Henry Nicholas of Mbale District in the Eastern part of the Country, Emmanuel’s father was a public servant who worked both for the Armed forces and Uganda Police for 30 years till his death.

Little did he know that, that early morning phone call would be officially appointing him as the new family bread winner at the age of 21 years old. This was big turning point in his life as now he had to carry responsibilities of his father despite the fact, he was still a student at Uganda Christian University. “This set a big hitch in my life as young man, but I was still motivated by success stories of other people’’, he said.

The current Youth Chairperson of the Uganda National Commission for the United Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) huddles ceased never to end until in 2016 when he decided to stand as the National Youth Member of Parliament for the Eastern Region and lost. “I had invested all that I had in this campaign, I sold my little businesses and house but mean while I lost’ ’he said.

“I became homeless for 2 years, I was housed at my uncle’s place”, he added. His father’s persistence and tolerance to provide for his family however little he got inspired him a lot to reboot him from scratch.

By the time his father was in Police he had been greatly inspired by the leadership of the then Inspector General of Police, General Katumba Wamala who tried to make Police welfare appeasing though it wasn’t the best, but he tried, these gave Wabwire momentum to standup again because of such people who impacted society positively.

Stories of people like Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Barrack Obama of USA and former Ugandan president Milton Obote uplifted Wabwire’s soul to restructure himself as a better person.

While growing up Wabwire was bright young man whose efforts just didn’t contribute to his grades due to his stubbornness and has a punishment he was sent to the village where he saw life in a very different perspective. “Sleeping on an empty stomach was a reality’’, he said. He therefore ventured into small petty economic activities like brick laying, pottering on construction sites, unsuccessful farming to raise food on the table.

‘’With such a background and motivation, I just had to find a new strategy of rebuilding myself”, he added. Such stories of different people who came from backgrounds like mine really uplifted my soul. With the strong support of my family and friends, he managed to get a job under the UNDEF program and managed to come back on board.

Wabwire currently is the Executive Director of Faraja Africa Foundation a non-profit organization he founded in 2013 a social enterprise that runs a number of businesses in Safaris, technology, communications and social impact.

Wabwire says that the money we earn are used to cause an intervention in the community to impact positively, bringing economic empowerment and social engagement of young people in political spaces, and enraging them into the economy as we protect culture and heritage.

With his Faraja Digital and Faraja Television gives visibility and amplifies the work they are doing to support the work of Faraja Africa Foundation to impact the community. Both provides platforms for networking and dialogue for both offline and online between leaders and local online communities in respective localities.

Our platforms encourage youth to advocate, mobilize knowledge, raising voices ensuring transparency and accountability on current interventions.

He is the founder and Managing Director of Faraja Safaris; a tour operating company he founded in 2016. A tour operator and travel agency in East Africa with a wide package category that won’t only unleash the freshness of mother nature but also the comfort and hospitality of the agency.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Development Studies from Uganda Christian University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Catholic University of Milan, Italy. He served as the Guild President for Uganda Christian University 2012-2013. He volunteered at Uganda Red Cross in 2010. Currently he serves as the Chairperson of the Uganda Christian University Alumni Association since March 2021. He is the recipient of Gold Award of the Duke of Edinburg International award 2018.