Sixty young women have graduated with skills in designing and tailoring in Phalombe courtesy of Development Aid from People to People (DAPP) mobile training centre.
The young girls have returned to their respective homes with certificates from Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) and starter pack comprising of sewing machine and related items for the group of three.
The Principal for DAPP Mikolongwe Vocational School, Augustus Kaliyati, said in an interview that they are training girls in nine districts of the southern part of Malawi.
“In 2015 we conducted a survey where we noted that most girls in this country dropped out of school due to teenage pregnancies, early marriages and other circumstances that seemed hopeless.
“Therefore we consulted youth offices and youth networks who gave us necessary information which led us to be now training these girls in nine districts of this country,” he said.
Kaliyati said over 500 adolescent girls and young women are expected to benefit from these trainings in the said districts of Neno, Balaka, and Phalombe just to mention a few.
On his part, chairperson for the district’s council, Fedson Thomas, commended DAPP for the job well done saying lives of these trained girls will no longer be the same again as they will be able to be getting some basic needs through their gained skills.
“As the council we are very thankful to DAPP for training our girls here, it was possible to go somewhere else but they thought it that it is important to include Phalombe in their project, I am sure they have a lot to help us here.
“Our girls now are experts in tailoring, they are no longer the same as they were a year ago, they will be getting something daily which they will be using in eradicating some of the problems they have had been facing,” said Thomas.
He then advised the trained girls that they should take care of the tools they have received and warned them that the council do not want to hear that some have sold these materials.
One of the beneficiaries of the training, Madalo Chakapa, thanked DAPP saying their statuses in their communities have now changed as now they know what it takes to have successful businesses.
“I am happy that I am now a qualified tailor, I’ll be able to be getting money through the skills which I gained here, I am very thankful to DAPP,” she said.
These girls were trained in two cohorts as 30 from traditional authorities of Jenala and Mkhumba were trained in Miseufolo early this year while the other 30 are from traditional authorities of Kaduya and some from Mkhumba were being trained at Phalombe district council offices from the month of May this year.
