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Writes Marlvin Ngiza
The People’s Republic of China through the Chinese Embassy has joined forces with a Chitungwiza-based young people’s movement, Teen Rescue Mission (TRM), in expediting economic empowerment initiatives in the area through the donations of chickens for young people to commence poultry projects.
The gesture has been welcomed by the residents of Chitungwiza who applauded the two parties saying it will go a long way in bringing new skills to the community and help in alleviating poverty and cases of substance abuse, early marriages, and crime in the setup.
The poultry project complements the market and gardening project which has already seen young people affiliated with TRM earning a living by supplying vegetables to the areas around Chitungwiza.
TRM Director, Abraham Matuka, expressed gratitude to the Chinese Embassy for a timely intervention saying that the assistance has been useful to them as an organisation since they managed to use the proceeds from the poultry project to finance the construction of ablution facilities at the centre.
“We are very happy for the partnership we have with the Chinese Embassy. They have been our supporting partners since a long time ago. They donated some chickens to us and they are coming soon with another batch of chickens.
“We managed to improve our premises by building toilets using the money that we got from the supported poultry project. Our young people are also benefiting through getting skills on how to run and manage the chickens and we believe that these skills will also benefit them in their lives,” said Matuka.
Furthermore, TRM is set to open a technical training center that will benefit young people in Chitungwiza by offering a variety of courses which include welding, motor mechanics, dressmaking, and carpentry among others.
The 18-year-old Joseph Phiri who expressed his sentiments about the technical centre said “As a youth, I am seeing that our future will never be the same following the establishment of this training centre. We had many dreams to learn some self-sustaining skills but the dreams were difficult to accomplish since we had no affordable institution close to us. Now that TRM will be opening soon, we will acquire these skills easily. It will help to spare us as youths from social ills such as crime. We are very excited,” he said.
Tarisai Moyo also said “As a young woman, I was almost giving up on life saying I failed my academics but when I heard about the yet-to-be-opened training centre at TRM, I felt hope being revived and I have already started preparations to enroll. I know that I am going to get skills that will change my story,” she said.
So far, the Chinese Embassy donated 500 chickens and some chicken feed.TRM operates from Seke, Chitungwiza. They are located in the new settlements of Besa village.