A non- profit organisation that works to improve lives of the disadvantaged youth has launched a cottage industry training project in Nyagatare District. The Assist Rwanda project is funded by the Workforce Development Authority (WDA), through the Skills Development Fund (SDF).The three-month training will equip 117 youths with skills to make liquid soap, shampoo, wood preservatives, candles, petroleum jelly, shoe polish, among others. The SDF programme manager, Livingstone Byandaga, said the training industry was aimed at tackling unemployment in the country. Becomng job creatorByandaga urged trainees to master the skills so as to compete at the regional labour market. “These are life skills that, if used well, will shape your future and that of the whole country. It is an opportunity that youth like you can’t afford to miss,” he said. “You have seen the raw materials used to produce soap and others. You can plant them in gardens, for instance. It is all about getting focused as you push to achieve goals,” Byandaga added. Assist Rwanda received a grant worth over Rwf40 million in the first round of the SDF grants awarded by the World Bank through WDA.Jenny Kansime, one of the trainees and a final year student in Finance at Umutara Polytechnic, said her decision to attend the training was motivated by the ambition to become a job creator. Youth urgedShe urged the youth to embrace the training to address unemployment.“There is no doubt that unemployment remains a big problem. University education may not give me a job immediately, but technical skills will do,” Kansime said.According to the Chairperson of Assist-Rwanda, Emmanuel Shamakokera, the trainees would also get skills to form cooperatives.Shamakokera said start-up capital will be extended to the graduates so that their skills benefit the public.“From these trainees, we are striving hard to develop trainers who will pass on skills to the whole country,” he said.
