By Awan Achiek
The Lutheran World Federation, a Church-based organization operating in South Sudan has on May 31 graduated about 145 youth on its vocational skills program.
The empowerment program was on soap making, saloon business, mobile phone repair, bakery and shoes mending in the States’ capital respectively. These include Juba, Torit, Wau, Malakal, and Bor.
Lino Akoon Angok, Project Coordinator for Lutheran World Federation said the beneficiaries were unskilled young men and women, school dropouts, and unemployed youth.
“Some of these youth whom we trained do not have jobs and some of them dropped out of schools due to coronavirus situation and that is why we had to empower them,” Angok told Juba Echo in an exclusive interview on June 2.
The humanitarian worker revealed that the past 45-days training had empowered the young people and it would create job opportunities for them.
“We were able to also trained them on how to market their soap products, how to keep record in their business, and identify business opportunities,” Angok highlighted.
He believes the capacitated youth would contribute meaningfully to the economic growth of their families, and that of their communities.
According to Mr. Angok, it was high time to provide skills for youth instead of leaving them to engage in violence and crimes.
“Therefore, they would now be able to engage in productive livelihoods activities which will support them as individuals and their family members,” he added.
The Project Coordinator revealed that the beneficiaries have been offered cash prize to help them become self-reliance rather than to seek wages employment.
“We have given each of them 134,500 South Sudanese Pound to help them start up a small business that will give them income on monthly, daily, or weekly basis,” he explained.
Kanla Linda, a beneficiary of the program in Juba appreciated the organization for investing in young people.
She acknowledges that the start-up capital would help to boost her family’s livelihoods.
“I am optimistic to have received this amount of cash. So I can testify that it will help to support my family’s welfare,” Linda explained in an interview.
The program dubbed “Empowering youth through vocational skills” was part of the Lutheran World Federation’s COVID-19 response operations in South Sudan.
