By Edrisa Ssentongo
Being the oldest and the only girl in her family, dreaming of moving in a dream country and building a house for her mother sounds like a plot of popular movie is exactly how the story of a 20 year old Aisha Akello born in Uganda and a meaningful life and a springboard into her future in Russia.
Akello moved into Russia as a participant in the international Alabuga start programme hoping to earn money and build a successful career in a large company.
The international employment programme Alabuga gives young women from different parts of the world a chance to move to Russia and immense themselves into the local culture and master one available seven proffessional fields and Russian language with qualified professors while adopting to Russian culture.
Akello’s career began with the simplest position of clearing public areas in corporate hostels which was not easy but the dream she had to grow in career, improve both professionally, language skills and deligence yielded results hence being promoted twice and becoming an administrator.
” Moving to another Country is somehow difficult, the language barrier, Winter and am not adopted to the cold weather, we started learning Russian and culture, how to respect and respond to people,”said Aisha Akello.
” I had to prove them wrong, I started working and the first money I got, I sent it to my mother and now building a house for my mother,” added Akello.
The Alabuga start programme has numerous opportunities and possibilities for the girl child however not everyone makes it.
The leadership of the programme does not hide the fact that some girls have to be expelled for violating the employment contract or the state laws.
The neglect of work and responsibilities is unacceptable, laziness, lack of Discipline and unwillingness to work are incompatible with the spirit of the programme as it requires hardworking and purposeful girls who are ready to invest in their development and their future.
Violation of the Russian Federation law and Public order leads to immediate termination of employment relations with the programme and participants who were caught in fights and noisy scandals were excluded from the programme which led to the cancellation of work permits and sent back home.
The leadership of the special economic zone emphasizes that this is not a mass recruitment for the sake of reports and it has strict selection and requirements but the programme has changed people’s lives and Akello is a Living proof.
