Over 100 People to Benefit from Green Jobs Project

ADRA Malawi is implementing Green jobs project with funding from Save the Children with the aim of curbing the destruction of natural resources and over 100 people are expected to benefit from the project in Mzimba district specifically in T/A Mbelwa, T/A Mzikubola and T/A Kampingosibande.

Speaking in an interview on Friday, 23rd February,2024 during Village Natural Resources Management Committees(VNRMCs), Village Disaster Risk Management Committees (VDRMCs) and Youth Clubs trainings aiming at strengthening the capacity of these community structures, the Project's Coordinator, Beatrice Banda said the goal of the project is to empower the ultra-poor participants like youth and adolescents aged 15 to 24 years to be economically independent.

"Despite that they are school dropouts; we need them to have the skills that they can depend on in future. Though the society does not expect much from such people, the project is coming in to help those kind of people to depend on their own by giving them skills which we are calling them green skills," said Banda

She added that most of the skills are designed to be environmental friendly in such that the environment should be preserved despite that some might be using environment materials but green skills will be imparted to them so that the environment should be preserved at the end of the project and such green skills are like biogas, solar installation among others.

"So far we have registered 100 participants, 50 females and 50 males but these are direct participants. However, they are also indirect participants like the committee structures on the ground," she explained.

Banda added that some of the things that they will be teaching are entrepreneurship, ecosystem, and vocational skills among many other things.

In his remarks, Forestry Officer, Mbelwa district council, Isaac Baloyi said as the beneficiaries will be getting different skills, the project will also assist directly to the Forestry department particularly in terms of forest conservation and management.

"Once the Committees have been trained on how to manage forest resources, how to establish nurseries and how to create village forest areas in their respective areas, I believe that this will help us a lot in conservation of natural resources," said Baloyi.

One of the participants who is also the chairperson of the youth club, Wanangwa Phiri, said the project is timely and it will help the youth and community as a whole to be economically independent as they will learn other skills that would help them generate income.

He added that they will be pioneers in the community as they will also teach others on the important of conserving natural resources.

The project is being implemented in partnership with the district youth office, the gender office, community development department, social welfare, Village Development Committees (VDCs), Area Development Committees (ADCs) and Child Protection Committees.

Apart from the district partners that ADRA is working with, they are working in consortium with other partners like Mzuzu University, Mzuzu E_hub, Save the Children Malawi and TEVETA.

By Chikondi Banda