Afrikids provides unemployed youth with tools
Afrikids Ghana, a child rights organisation based in the Upper East Region with support from a United Kingdom based Charity Organisation, Comic Relief, has supported 151 unemployed youth in the Upper East Region with tools to start their own businesses after completing a four-year vocational training in Bolgatanga.
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The tools, valued at about GH¢4.6 million, included hair dryers, sewing machines, tape measures, soldering irons, welding tools, pliers, spanners, crow bars, hammers and screw drivers among others. The beneficiaries were trained in welding, carpentry, masonry, sewing and hairdressing.
The support to the beneficiaries was provided under a programme dubbed "New Beginning" which is aimed at rehabilitating vulnerable and needy children within the Afrikids catchment areas in the Bolgatanga Municipality,Talensi Nabdam and Kassena Nankana districts.
The Country Director of Afrikids, Mr Nicholas Kumah, explained that a total of 344 young people were benefiting from the programme in the region.
According to him, out of the 344 people,193 pursued non-technical education while 151 underwent vocational training.
He said all the 193 beneficiaries who pursued formal education had since completed senior high school and are currently pursuing higher education.
Afrikids investment
Mr Kumah stated that Afrikids was committed to working towards its three-year strategic Plan which aims at directly improving the lives of 110,000 children and 143,000 adults from 2013 to 2016.
This number, he noted, constituted about 27 per cent of the region’s population, adding that, by the close of this year, his outfit would inject over GH¢5 million into the economy by way of investment and implementation of its projects.
Youth unemployment
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Daniel Syme, in a speech read on his behalf, assured the youth in the region that the Regional Coordinating Council would do all it could to provide the needed support by partnering non-governmental organisations to ensure that youth unemployment in the region was reduced to its barest minimum.
One of the beneficiaries, Ms Berlinda Tembil, who hails from Kpatinga in the Talensi District, said she hoped to establish a salon to help employ those who were also facing unemployment problems in the area.