OPM distributes start-up kits to 1,300 DINU sponsored youths BY ISAIAH KITIMBO

By: Isaiah Kitimbo

OMORO.

A total of 1,300 youths from 41 districts in Northern Uganda have received start-up kits following a three-month skills training in agriculture and agribusiness related areas.

The training aimed at empowering the youth with crucial vocational skills to create new sources of livelihoods. It was fully sponsored by Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) under the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU) Youth Skilling Programme (YSP) supported by the European Union (EU).

At a ceremony to commission and hand over packages of the start-up kits to each of the eight Technical Vocational Education Training Institutes (TVETs), for distribution to the trained youth, at the Northern Uganda Youth Development Centre (NUYDC) on November 16, 2023, the Minister of State for Northern Uganda, Hon. Grace Freedom Kwiyucwiny, said: “Substantial progress and gains are being made to prioritize skilling of the youth across the country. The delivery of the start-up kits to the eight TVETs in Northern Uganda today is to enable the DINU trained youth to apply the skills and knowledge and create small businesses”.

The Head of the European Union Delegation to Uganda, Ambassador Jan Sadek, stated: “The European Union is delighted to work with OPM to implement such an important programme. Offering opportunities to young Ugandans to gain crucial skills in the agriculture sector will have direct impact on their employability, income and livelihoods. I trust that they will become role models for other young people who will benefit from their acquired knowledge.”

Here is the highlight of the handover ceremony, in pictures: –

The Minister of State for Northern Uganda, Hon. Grace Freedom Kwiyucwiny, in a group photo with DINU National Programme Coordinator Pamela Kabahesi, former Gulu regional programme coordinator Beatrice Arach, and representatives of the eight Technical Vocational Education Training Institutes (TVETs), shortly after commissioning packages of the start-up kits in Omoro District on November 16, 2023.

The Minister, flanked by Mr. Gonzaga Mayanja, the Commissioner Monitoring, and Evaluation – Local Governments at OPM, Ms. Pamela Kabahesi, the DINU National Programme Coordinator, and other Omoro District officials, tours stalls of the trained youth, who were exhibiting some of the products from the enterprises they established following the DINU training. Such enterprises included vegetable farming, poultry and nursery tree management.

Ms Gloria Akello, one of the 1,300 youths who were trained under the DINU Youth Skilling Programme, receives a set of start-up kits from Omoro District chairperson Peter Douglas Okello during the handover of the kits at Northern Uganda Youth Development Centre (NUYDC) on November 16, 2023. In the middle is Mr. Watson Jaspher Ocen, the DINU YSP coordinator at NUYDC

Mr. Chrispus Okello, a trained youth, affirms that DINU YSP has been beneficial to many youths in Northern Uganda. He said many youths have been able to create various small income-generating businesses.

Omoro District leaders and other officials peruse through the DINU folders and factsheets for a deeper insight and appreciation of the programme interventions in Northern Uganda.