Government for youth empowerment, says MP Kafwafwa
Parliamentary Committee on Social and Community Affairs Chairperson, Savel Kafwafwa, has reaffirmed government’s commitment to empowering youths in the country including providing them with loans and entrepreneurship skills so that they become financially independent thereby improving their living standards.
He made the remarks on Tuesday after the committee visited two youth organizations namely; True Action in Youth Development (TAYODE) based in Traditional Authority (T/A) Chimutu in Lilongwe and Teams Advancing Women in Agriculture (TAWINA) which is based at Lumbadzi in Dowa.
At TAYODE, youths are doing various projects including bee keeping and vocational training programs, while at TAWINA girls are being empowered with different expertise such as tailoring and farming with a focus on crop and animal production.
Kafwafwa said his committee decided to visit the youth organizations in order to appreciate the efforts which young people are doing in order to transform lives.
“Our committee has a mandate to look at the welfare of young people in Malawi and because of the circumstances that are surrounding youths in the country, we thought it wise to visit the two youth organizations in order to appreciate the work which they are doing in a bid to change their living standards,” Kafwafwa said.
During the visit his committee observed that youths in the country have potential to uplift their livelihood but they lack support.
“With what we have seen at TAYODE and TAWINA we have observed that youths in the country have potential to uplift their lives but they are lacking support like funding, loans and skills to support their work and businesses,” he said.
He, therefore, emphasised on the need for the youths to be equipped with skills as well as being given loans as a startup capital for their businesses.
Government has established a K75 billion loan program which will allow youths in the country to borrow money and start small businesses.
In his remarks, TAYODE Executive Director, Clement Kabwila, commended government for its commitment in empowering youths in the country saying such efforts would help more youths to realize their goals.
TAWINA Field Facilitator, Aness Banda, also hailed government for its interventions in youth empowerment, but asked for implementation of more programs aimed at empowering girls and young women in the country.
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