One hundred and fifty-one unemployed youth in the Upper East Region have been supported with tools to start their own businesses after completing a four-year vocational training in Bolgatanga.
The beneficiaries were trained in welding, carpentry, masonry, sewing and hairdressing.
Afrikids, Ghana, a child rights organisation based in the Upper East Region, with support from a United Kingdom-based charity organisation, Comic Relief, supported the training and provided the working tools with GH�4.6 million.
The tools included hair dryers, sewing machines, tape measures, soldering irons, welding tools, pliers, spanners, crow bars, hammers, screw drivers among other facilities.
The training and provision of tool is part of a programme dubbed: "New Beginning,"which is aimed at rehabilitating the 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 benefitting from the programme in the region.
According to him,out of the 344 people,193 pursued formal education, while 151 underwent vocational training.
He said all the 193 beneficiaries who pursued formal education had since completed senior high school and currently pursuing higher education.
Afrikids investment
Mr Kumah stated that Afrikids was committed and working towards its three-year strategic plan which had a goal of directly improving the lives of 110,000 children and 143,000 adults from 2013 to 2016.
These beneficiaries, he noted, constituted about 27 per cent of the Upper East Region's population.
He said his outfit would, by the close of this year, inject over GH�5 million into the economy by way of investment and implementation of its projects.
Youth employment
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 co-ordinating council would partner non-governmental organisations to ensure that youth unemployment in the region was reduced to its barest minimum.
One of the beneficiaries, Ms Berlinda Tembil, from Kpatinga in the Talensi District expressed the hope to establish a hairdresser�s salon so she could also offer employment to some of her colleagues who were facing unemployment problems in the area.
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