NGO doles out cash to Kibaha youth groups

By DAILY NEWS Reporter

A GROUP of non-governmental organisations led by Plan International (Tanzania Chapter) last weekend presented toolkits worth over 46m/- to Kibaha youth whom it sponsored on a six-month course.

The 16 youth registered groups were partnered with Vocational Educational and Training Authority (VETA) and European Union. At a ceremony held at sub-rural Kongowe area, Coast Region Administrative Secretary Zuberi Samata thanked the EU for the donation, saying: “ … these are our true partners … they want to see our youth are pulled out of poverty.

” He said the EU has shown priority to the youth in the country out of many nations it globally caters for and challenged the youth to reciprocate by recognising their potentialities in the society and work hard instead of giving priority to idle groups (vijiwe), videos, whatsap and misguided peer groups’ influences which would drive them nowhere.
“Today is a very great day to the communities in the districts because their children are receiving startup toolkits to strat better livelihoods. This is a very great achievement to never forget the project support to the ambitious government development programmes of a middle class economy,” RAS further pointed out. Equally, VETA-Pwani head of institution, Deusdedit Joseph extolled the consortium including VSO, UHIKI, CODERT and CCBRT for spearheading the programme of Youth Economic Empowerment (YEE) with them that successfully trained the youth in the six-month course.
Receiving the assortment of the working tools including sewing machines, hammers, car jerks, rolls of clothe materials, electric equipment, aluminum ladders, blenders, cooking gas burners among others, on behalf of the graduating youth, he asked them to be good ambassadors of the institution and the NGOs which have shown mercy on them to raise their livelihoods and also employ others in the streets.
A tutor at the institution, Ms Margret Christopher who was training them on Cooking and Decoration, also thanked the EU for funding the YEE programme saying it was at the right time the country was busy implementing industrialisation and required enough manpower. She challenged the youth to turn out in big numbers for the free course at the institution, but must first register in groups, where the related NGOs, citing UHIKI was imparting them with “how to access loans” skills and become economically selfreliant people.
During the occasion, Salama Ally, a student (married with a kid) appealed to the RAS to petition the government to give them priorities in acquiring Municipal tenders and other opportunities which could enable them exercise their VETA acquired skills and loans from the microfinance institution to fight poverty in their midst.
In an interview with the ‘Daily News’ Plan International Tanzania Acting Director, Adam Mambea pointed out that they decided to come up with the strategy after realising that many youth struggle to get out of poverty, but luck the right skills to succeed