MONDULI: A new Youth Empowerment Program is rolling out in Monduli District, Arusha Region, where students are being practically trained to become productive while still in school.
Already 66 students from the Mswakini Secondary School in the remote Mswakini ward of Monduli have successfully completed the Youth Empowerment Mentorship Program (YEMP) and been recognized with honors.
Implemented under the Tanzania Partnership Program (TPP) the YEMP initiative comprised Form One, Two and Three students trained to become experts in organic farming, livestock keeping and soap manufacturing using locally available materials.
“Educating children is one thing. But empowering the students to be self-reliant and productive industrialists while still in school is another, and this program has managed to accomplish that,” said Amina Maulid the Monduli District Education Officer.
The Mswakini Secondary School Youth Empowerment Program was coordinated by the Maasai Women Development Organization (MWEDO) and executed under the Monduli District Council, the Michigan State University (USA), the Sokoine University of Agriculture Dar-es-salaam University College of Education (DUCE).
The Mswakini Secondary School Headmaster, Christian Peter Bogasi said vocational training was among the new directives from the Ministry of Education requiring all institutions to prepare pupils and students to be self-reliant.
“The Youth Empowerment Mentorship Program (YEMP) is in line with the government’s new directive for schools and we are glad to have started it much earlier,” said the headmaster.
He expressed gratitude that Mswakini was chosen for the program out of the 16 government secondary schools operating in Monduli District.
On her part, Lineth Sheduo, the Tanzania Partnership School Program Officer said the Mswakini Secondary School Monduli is a living example of how YEMP is transforming students from simple class attendants into productive young people.
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Parmet Kopromo is the Programme Manager at Maasai Women Development Organization who revealed that the Youth Empowerment initiative is being undertaken in five districts of Arusha and Manyara regions in Northern Tanzania.
He explained that the students are provided with special skills in fields of Animal Health, Community Wellbeing, Education, Environment, Water and sanitation.
As the 66 trainees were being presented with certificates of completion and accompanying prizes, two of the beneficiary students, Mary Baraka and Aminaeli Zakayo both the Form read presented a statement on behalf of other youth.
They called upon the organizers to find ways of increasing the program to cover other schools and enroll more club members, because apart from being empowered to become productive, they have also learned communication skills.
“And since our school is still new, we still lack a number of facilities, including a dining hall which can also serve as a community center, more plots for gardening and poultry farming as well as a fence to keep off intruders,” they said.
The Monduli District Council however promised to take care of some of the raised concerns from the students.
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