A Coast organisation has unveiled a business training plan targeting 1,600 young men and women.
Dream Achievers Youth Organisation in partnership with the Aga Khan Foundation is focusing on youth and women from vulnerable backgrounds, to cushion them from social ills like drugs and substance abuse.
The programme, a Covid-19 response initiative, will benefit youth in all the six sub-counties of Mombasa.
The main target of the six-month programme is to engage youth, who are likely to become victims and used by politicians to cause chaos ahead of the August 9 general election.
Dayo programme officer Enos Opiyo said they carried out a rapid assessment on the youth.
He said the research showed that they are likely to be used to fan violence during the electioneering period, therefore there was a need to keep them busy.
The research was done with an intention to capture the most vulnerable group and it helped in reaching out to the identified youths.
“This is a project that will uplift the lives of many people," Opiyo said.
"We are targeting the vulnerable because we know many families are still experiencing the shocks of Covid-19 and their livelihoods have been affected,” said Opiyo.
The coast region Aga Khan Foundation programme officer Salvano Owuor said many young people are still struggling to find regular source of income, leading them to indulge in social vices.
“Empowering the youth with entrepreneurial skills is very important especially during election period. We want to keep them busy with projects that can empower them,” he said.
Salvano said that they are targeting to initiate business start-ups with a stipend that will ensure they thrive as part of a recovery strategy from the economic shocks of Covid-19.
The programme is expected to last beyond August this year.
In the past two weeks cases of political related chaos in Mombasa involving the youths was witnessed.
Coast- based human rights organisations have called upon the National Cohesion and Integration Commission to intervene to ensure peace prevails ahead of elections.
(Edited by Francis Wadegu)
