Young people across the world are always vulnerable and face lots of challenges regarding they day to day life. A large percentage are un able to achieve their dreams because either they may not be able to afford courses of their interest or are always undecided in what to do with their lives. IN Africa, lots of young people are affected when their parents succumb to death due to terminal illnesses or HIV/AIDS. They are left to lead and provide for their siblings. Discovering their creative potentials could help them make some income from locally available materials. For example: tree leaves, old shoes, old car tires, papers, reeds, beads among others.
These items can be used to make some essential items that are used by many people in their daily lives. One does not have to be literate to create them all they need is the interest. Young people from different parts of the world can build a net work that could help them overcome lots of life challenges. Young people within a village could form groups, support each other and learn together by sharing their ideas. This will help them perfect their creativity. Market their products collectively. This makes distribution less costly. Production could also be modified to suit the target market. For example, If a target is a learning institution (Kindergartens), the items will include chats, wooden alphabetical letters, or toys, decorated with paints. A group of students can also learn and practice together. This could help them save some income and use it to supplement their financial needs at very law capital.
I grew up as an orphan, with just my mum supporting a family of 8 people. The challenges I faced motivated me to learn how to do thing just by seeing. lots of people in my village are jobles and often go round looking for jobs. I always spend time thinking of how to generate income from what is localy available. We started a small youth group in 2009. We make different handicraft randing from sandas, jewelery, belts, wall paintings, seasonal cards, key rings and many more.
So far I have trained 35 youth free of charge. Any body has a potential so long as they have interest in what they do.
Last year I went to exhibit our work internationaly in a tradefair. This was an avenue for geting links for export. I look forward to have a big network of young people exchanging ideas and have a strong partner to trade as well as create jobs for other young people.
