Ujuzi Kwa Vijana / Co-operaid
Kenya
- Kitale, Kenya
- 12 month professional training
- Self-help groups
- Active support/finding a job/starting a business
- Young people who are homeless or from slums
This project is located in Kitale, western Kenya, at 1900m. altitude, where poverty particularly affects young people, abandoned in the streets, with delinquency and teenage pregnancies as their only horizon.
This project is planned over a 3-year cycle (2023-2025) for 510 young people.
This involves organizing 170 street youth each year, out of 600 interested (including at least 60% of girls/women) into social groups, in which they will help each other to first achieve life skills through a specific training (like skills training).
Once this first stage has been reached, the young people must decide on a profession, for which they will follow a training (apprenticeship) of 9 months. They will also take courses in entrepreneurship and business management. For those who have successfully completed the entire course, they will be provided with the basic equipment necessary to start their professional activities. In addition, they will benefit from a follow-up to optimize their chances of success.
The first two rounds demonstrated the validity of such a curriculum. Thus more and more young people wanting to follow the example of their elders will be admitted to this program.
Testimonial:
Rosemary Adhiambo, apprentice hairdresser
In the 2023 intake, which will continue its apprenticeship until the end of 2023, there is a young woman aged 20: Rosemary Adhiambo, mother of a little boy.
Abandoned by her parents at the age of 8, Rosemary was initially taken in by her grandmother, who enabled her to complete primary schooling, but was unable to provide her with secondary education. An uncle took over, but gave up when she became pregnant. So she had to raise her son on her own, going from one odd job to another, until the ngo’s social workers took her on and successfully integrated her into their group of 170 young people selected for an apprenticeship in 2023. She works hard to earn this chance and, with good grades, be able to complete her apprenticeship as a hairdresser.
Latest news:
Following the success of previous project batches (100% of participants completed the course!), a new batch of 124 young women/girls and 46 young men were selected and deemed suitable for the course (170, as planned in the program); their 9-month apprenticeship phase began in April 2024.
In addition to the apprenticeship, workshops are also organized to raise awareness of gender equality among young people (especially males) and bring about behavioral change.
With each intake, the percentage of girls/women selected is increasing, which is very pleasing.