July 15 is World Youth Skills Day—a day to mark the importance of equipping young people with the skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship. Canadian Feed The Children works with many local partner organizations in Canada, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Uganda with the goal of unlocking children’s potential and building capacity in communities so that they can achieve their own long-term sustainable changes. Specialized youth skills projects and programs are one way of working towards these changes.

Gafaru, a young Father and budding entrepreneur living in the North of Ghana, recently took part in a new vocational training initiative that grew out of a community planning session that identified skills training as a way to counter high levels of youth unemployment and rural-to-urban migration.

“During off-farming season, there was [no work and therefore] the high temptation to embark on seasonal migration to cities. Now, I am fully engaged throughout the year and there is no need to move out of my community.”

Thanks to CFTC donors, Gafaru and his wife are now able to earn a living in their community year-round, producing a variety of leather goods like bags, sandals, and key holders. He adds that the program has fostered economic development for the community as a whole:

“Our local economy is growing. Previously anyone who needed the items we are now producing had to travel to Yendi and Tamale. But now, they have them readily available here.”

Erica had been working with her Mother in their pito brewery (a local wine made from Guinea corn) before she was selected to take part in a vocational training program focused on bead making. Erica says:

“There were limited opportunities to learn skills and that’s why I had to work in the pito brewery - because my mother already had skills in it. The cost of pito brewing is high with a very small profit margin.”

Now, after six months of training, Erica has the skills to make bags, sandals, necklaces, and many other items, and the knowledge to help her with financial planning and saving for the future. She is also training her sister in these skills.