By Yang Ater Yang
Over 40 women from Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and host communities in Awerial County have completed a three-month hairdressing and tailoring training.
Finland Church Aid through support from Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported the training.
County officials and representatives from both IDPs and host communities attended the graduation ceremony, which concluded with the distribution of the start-up kit.
Mary Ayen Deng, a tailoring graduate, stated that 20 women trainees, including those with disabilities, have graduated with a start-up kit.
Each machine is shared among two women within the group, along with a kitenge and other essential items, she said.
“We want Finland church organization to continue doing good things to support us. We want to see more women from IDPs and host communities to get skills and knowledge in hairdressing and tailoring,” she said.
Awerial County’s deputy executive director, Albino Cuei promised that the county authority will allocate land near the town for tailoring and hairdressing trainees and urged Finland church aid to continue supporting women with skills.
“This training is very helpful to vulnerable. It makes women work hard to feed their kids. It’s an income for the family and it helps support a woman to buy herself clothes, and food, and even send their children to school. We want these NGOs to continue supporting them,” he said.
“As government authorities in the county, we shall allocate land and look for a donor to build a good store and a place for their businesses of tailoring and hairdressing,” he said.
Andruga Hillary Jacob team leader of Finland Church Aid said this marks the fifth graduation of a second phase of training.
“In both two groups of tailoring and hairdressing, they have included 2 women living with a disability on both sides,”
“We have provided women from tailoring machines with kitenge including other items and those of saloon are given mirrors, hairdressers, lotions, and many items for their start-up”, he said.
He said the organization provides training and business start-up assistance, but it is up to individuals to acquire land and build, rather than the organization allocating it for them.