An American Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Education Development Centre (EDC), has launched a four-year project meant to empower Rwandan youth seeking jobs.

The project called Akazi kanoze/a youth livelihood, will work on securing the youth opportunities in various private and public institutions, according to the president and CEO of the NGO, Luther S. Luedtke.

"We are actually working close with different implementing organisations, a lot of youth in the whole world have almost the same challenges before getting their jobs and need these kinds of skills before they begin their jobs,” Luedtke said Wednesday.

Melanie Sany, the NGO’s Country Director, observed that the youth lose their newly acquired jobs because of lack of personal development-like identifying values, interpersonal communication and work habits.

She said that unique character of the Akazi Kanoze programme is that it is designed and tailored to fit in Rwanda’s social and cultural context so as to meet the employment market demand.

Sany said that the NGO targets 12,500 youth of which 5000 are orphans and vulnerable children from ages of 14 to 24.

Already half of them have been placed in paid internships, jobs or started their own cooperatives or small businesses.
Over 75 percent benefited from complementary specialised training that include entrepreneurship training and savings group development.

Funded by USAID, the project also plans to give financial support to some youth who have not gone to school and need to do small scale income generating activities.

Separately, Laura Shemeza , the EDC private sector specialist and publicist, told The New Times, yesterday, that the NGO seeks to strengthen the capacity of Rwanda’s future human resource which is capable of competing in the East Africa Community and the Commonwealth.

She noted that Rwandan productivity and economic growth depend on the youth capacity to deliver quality services.
Education Development Centre (EDC) is an international, non-profit organisation dedicated to enhancing learning and promoting health.

The NGO’s programmes will supplement the government’s policy of making the youth, the biggest percentage of the Rwandan population; play a greater role in accelerating economic development.

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