In an effort to inculcate and promote a culture of entrepreneurship among the youths, a Balaka based non-governmental organization, Better Standard Living Development Initiative (BSLDI) has embarked on an initiative that is highly anticipated to create an ecosystem of job creators.
Recent trends in Malawi have shown a sharp rise in unemployment rate among the Youths and this has caused some of them to embark on unnecessary behaviours and others to commit suicide.
It is against this background that BSLDI has started training youths in soap making and business management skills in an effort to help them to financially sustain their lives.
According to Executive Director of the organization, MacFord Chinonga, the youths will be helped with soap making techniques as well as how to grow their businesses.
Chinonga highlighted that it is their dream to see a nation where the youth are imparted with hands-on experience in entreneurship and are able to start their own business ventures rather than waiting to be employed.
”We believe that when we impart the Youths with the right entrepreneurial skills, they will be able to be job creators and not just job seekers,” Chinonga said.
He added that the initiative, which has so far trained over 45 youths will help the trainees to form cooperatives after finishing their training.
Emmanuel Chinyophiro is one of the participant in the first cohort of the training. He says, the training has been instrumental and will catalput him to venture into the soap making business.
”I am venturing into the soap making business and I will make sure to sell my products at affordable prices. You can agree with me that with the ailing economy, communities are struggling to afford basic commodities such as soap as the prices are exorbitant,” said Chinyophiro.
Another participant in the training, Brenda Bangalira says the training came at an opportune time and will lessen her burden on job hunting as she will now be concentrating on her own business enterprise.
The training was made possible with financial support from a United Kingdom based organization, Sapphire Employability and Well-being Academy-formerly known as the Sapphire Community Group.
