Thu, 16 Nov 2017 12:52:18 +0000
By Buumba Chimbulu
THE Africa-Asia Rural Development Organisation (AARDO) has disbursed US$40, 000 to equip youths in Mkushi district with entrepreneurial skills in ventures such as livestock and poultry.
AARDO is an inter-governmental autonomous organisation established in 1962 with a view to improve livelihood in rural areas of its member states such as Zambia.
AARDO assistant secretary general, Manoj Nardeosingh, explained that the organisation was working with Ministry of Sport, Youth and Child development and St. Anthony Catholic Church of Mkushi to ensure the targeted youths were trained.
Dr. Nardeosingh further explained that the training was expected to commence soon as the funds had already been disturbed.
“We have our regional office here which is financing the project in Mkushi where we are supporting a church organisation to build up infrastructure so that they can train youths in livestock and poultry keeping.
“The building is practically completed, we are financing about US$40, 000 in two installments, all installments have been disbursed, and we want youth from that region to become entrepreneurs. The training will start shortly and it is going to be operational very soon,” he said.
Dr. Nardeosingh said in an interview that such projects were conducted in rural areas where entrepreneurship skills for youths were limited, hence posing difficulties for business opportunities.
“We want to showcase to them that they still have a great future. We realise that the economy is dependent on them. We cannot assure them of the future but we can train them to give them a good future,
“We will take that project and showcase it to other member states so that the same learning experiences in Zambia and examples can be taken there especially in Africa and Asia so your experiences in Zambia will be taken elsewhere,” Dr. Nardeosingh said. Dr. Nardeosingh said the youths had been put in groups according to the line of businesses they were interested in while encouraging them to venture into value addition.
He had since hoped that Government would take the project as model and replicate it to other rural areas.
