210. Good Humans of 2021 - Trinity Heavenz
This episode is part of our special Good Humans series chronicling incredible conversations with some of the most inspiring people. Learn more about Good Humans here.
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Overview
Meet Trinity. Friends, we are truly honored to share this story of an incredibly resilient, compassionate Ugandan entrepreneur who's upskilling the next generation of African businesses by empowering its rising digitally-savvy youth. This 29-year-old social entrepreneur is sharing his harrowing story from the Kampala slums to build era92, a youth creative social enterprise working to end youth unemployment through design, arts and technology. Please dignify the courage, optimism and hope found in this episode. Trinity, thank you for trusting us to share this story. You are truly our hero🙏 We join you in supporting efforts to build Africa's youth-powered movements!
Today’s Guest
Trinity Heavenz, Founder + Chief Job Creator, era92
“When I close my eyes, even right now, I see thousands of young people in our slum down here. Young people that are walking in wrong directions of life. My dream is to see Africa where there is no extreme poverty, first of all, and I know we can do that. But second of all, I want to see Africa where every young person can actually have the skills and the opportunities for them to dream, believe and achieve.”
Episode Transcript
Download Full Episode Transcript Here
Episode highlights
Trinity’s story and journey to where he is today (2:19)
How a computer changed Trinity’s life (6:15)
The founding story and mission of era92 (12:00)
Who inspires Trinity (17:00)
Trinity’s work family and the next generation of leaders he is training (18:30)
Trinity’s vision for his community and the future of Africa (22:00)
Trinity’s best friend Levixone’s story and their friendship (26:00)
era92’s Elevate Program: Unlocking Africa’s Youthful Potential (28:00)
Trinity’s dreams for era92 (31:00)
Rapid fire questions (35:00)
Trinity’s One Good Thing: If every person helped just one person, then those 2 people would be helped. Go out and help somebody. (38:00)
Powerful quotes
“One of the things I remember, she told me that one of the things that she was working for me to get was a good education.” -Trinity
“As we entered the dormitories, we realized that this was a school of neglected abused street children.” -Trinity
“But then, as any story, there had to be a moment where I had to change. And for me, this was a hard one. I wanted to change.” -Trinity
“So for me, a lady called Jennifer asked me, “What can I give you that you never go back to the streets?” I asks for a computer. And luckily enough, the next day, they took us to the shop, my friend asked for music. They brought us everything that we had that we had asked for. And we started engaging in church activities, we started doing things and for me, this whole computer changed the new world of possibilities for me.” -Trinity
“Luckily enough by the age of 17, I was recognized through a talent workshop that Coca Cola had bought into our community. I was given an opportunity to go and intern with one of the Coca Cola agents that was designing their ad campaigns because they knew that I had this passion.” -Trinity
“It took me a long time, you know, to come back to the normal life. And I think part of it is my relationship with God.” -Trinity
“For me, I have been blessed with a lot of people who have loved me and actually made me forget some of these tragedies that I really saw when I was growing up.” -Trinity
“One night, something sparked within my heart. I started reflecting on my entire journey of how I came from the slums, got the computer, landed this internship, and then it clicked and I said, “Wow, can I get these young people in the slums and just give them opportunities?” Because there are so many of them that really need that one thing to unlock their potential, their dreams and realities. And so I did.” -Trinity
“I want to do something for young people. I want to train young people and also give them jobs. When you start a training these young people now the magic happened.” -Trinity
“I wanted to use my time here on earth to really make an impact in the lives of young people.” -Trinity
“Young people are brilliant and everything for me.” -Trinity
“I think when we started out as era92, I thought maybe the challenges we had in Uganda, but when I had the chance to travel to Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, I realized that we have the same problems as Africa. And so as a young person who is dreaming to change my community, I had to change my dream, to the entire continent.” -Trinity
“We are one of the fastest growing continents in the world, but the problem is, this growth is not trickling down to the population of young people that actually have to benefit from this economic growth.” -Trinity
“We have a generation of young people who are not skilled and who lack opportunities. Why? Because we have this high population growth and not enough jobs, not enough institutions that are giving young people the right core skills.” -Trinity
“We've done it for over 700 young people and this year's that we have over 200 young people that are going through our Elevate program.” -Trinity
“We believe that at the rate our population is growing, 1 billion young people need jobs in Africa, by 2035. In 2050, we will have the biggest workforce than that of the entire world. And so we have to train fast enough in the relevant skills that are going to help young people be employable, help them start their own businesses, and also be innovative in the ways they can solve solutions in their communities.” -Trinity
“When I close my eyes, even right now, I see 1000s of young people in our slum down here. Young people that are walking in wrong directions of life. My dream is to is to see Africa where there is no extreme poverty, first of all, and I know we can do that. But second of all, I want to see Africa where every young person can actually have the skills and the opportunities for them to dream, believe and achieve.” -Trinity
“My vision for my life is to use every skill that I've gotten to make sure that I become this ripple effect that can drop into this ocean called Africa, but also create these ripple effects of impact to millions and millions of young people across Africa.” -Trinity
“Generosity changed my life. And if anyone who's out there, and they're generous, just know that, that that gift, they're sowing a seed in someone's life, whenever they are giving, they shouldn't get out of that. I think that's it's powerful, how just one gift can change someone's life.” -Trinity
Connect with Trinity
LinkedIn / Instagram / 92hands Uganda / The New Africa / Facebook
Connect with era92
Website / Instagram / Elevate Program / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube
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