Youth in South Sudan get chance to acquire vocational skills
Twenty South Sudanese youth could have grown into adulthood without any skills, hence with minimal hopes of securing a source of income. But that is not the case anymore thanks to AAH South Sudan’s humanitarian project in Unity State. They are now undergoing vocational training in leather making
The three-month training is aimed at equipping the youth with practical skills for making footwear. Some of the beneficiaries are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who fled their homes due to the conflict in South Sudan and others are from the host community.
AAH South Sudan started the footwear-making training in Ajuong Thok Refugee Camp, in Unity State at the start of September. This training is a second phase of the life skills training programme that started in 2014. Twelve youth acquired skills in leather-craft production. It involves production of various leather-made items such as belts, bags, wallets, menu covers, key holders, among others using synthetic leather.
The 12 graduates from last year’s programme are currently running their workshops located in Ajuong Thok Refugee Camp and at Yida.
Edward Butrus, 27, is excited to be one of the trainees. Butrus arrived in Ajuong Thok Refugee Camp at the end of 2013, fleeing war in the Nuba Mountains as well as to seek education opportunity. “I joined school and managed to sit for the Sudan Certificate,” he says, adding that the training will help him develop skills that will enable him earn a living. “With limited hope to further my education, I find this training a great opportunity to improve my life and also serve the community,” he says.
NemaAshabath, another beneficiary of the training, is determined not to let her past interfere with her future. Ashabath, 23, left Nuba Mountains with her sister in in 2012. “I went to Pariang where I continued with my schooling, before moving to Ajoung Thok in October 2014,” she says, adding that her father died in 1999. She says the skills she will acquire from the training will help her to be self-employed.