In this pandemic-hit situation where people are losing jobs in fast succession and life has became difficult for many, Community Service Directorate has started creating jobs and infusing entrepreneurial spirit in youth to make them self-reliant, informed Director, Dr Teklu Wegayehu; as of now, we may be at fledgling stage, but future ahead holds great possibilities and ample opportunities.  Click here to see the pictures

He adds as we get acclimatized to worrying situation, we have also learnt new things; especially, while distributing sanitizer, liquid soaps and other things in the community, instead of shelling out money to others, we decided to produce hard and liquid soap ourselves which will be cost-effective and generate job opportunities for our youth who can eke out livelihood in respective communities.

Dwelling further, he informed that responding to the demand from a group of youth of Gamo Zone to start hard and liquid soap preparation from locally available raw materials like animal fats and soil chemicals; we joined hands with Gamo Zone Enterprise and Industry Development Department. This venture gained momentum in February 2020 and we will be training over 150 youth in Gamo Zone as training manual is underway, he added.

Shedding light on soap preparation, focal person, Mr Nebiyou Chali, said, that soaps being prepared are cost-effective as 90% animal fats, 10% alkaline soil or caustic soda are used which are easily available and it doesn’t need huge infrastructure to start the production. In this regard, we have already trained 17 youth from Arba Minch and 2nd and 3rd stages of the training is likely to be held for youth at Mirab Abaya, Lante, and Shelle woredas respectively.

Venturing into new arena of preparing different artifacts from bamboo plant, Dr Teklu Wegayehu, said, in Ethiopia its usage is limited; therefore, to exploit bamboo’s full potential, we have signed a project – ‘Bamboo-based Livelihood Strategy for Rural Mothers in Gamo Highlands’ with China-based NGO – called International Bamboo and Rattan Organization (INBAR) that has helped us to scale up the project.

In this project, AMU has contributed ETB 200,000 and 700,000 came from INBAR. The co-investigator of this project, Mr Sileshi Abebe, has informed that 59 project beneficiaries including female from poor socio-economic background and few men were imparted training by two INBAR personnel in the month of October 2020 and February 2021 while 3rd training is slated to be held in June or July 2021.

Apart from scheduled trainings, we are also periodically conducting discussion sessions and guiding them as how to approach market to sell off their wares. AMU is also providing seed money to buy bamboo sticks and they have already started producing artifacts like bed, table, chairs, decorative items, etc and earning revenue, he said.

Taking a cue from INBAR, Dr Teklu said, we have prepared a proposal on creating buffer zone along Abaya and Chamo Lakes’ bank stretching up to 30 hectares by planting bamboo plants which will serve as a sieve in filtering sediments and soil from water flowing from up the mountain down into lakes. We hope government, in most probability, agrees for the same which will be a huge project in our area.

Similarly, we are also engaging youth in prospecting special woredas like Burji and Amaro woredas and in Gamo Zone; in this connection, South Nations Nationalities and People’s Region Mines & Energy Bureau has signed an agreement with Arba Minch University to explore coal deposit at Kucha and Kucha-Alpha that will incur ETB 200,000. We are helping a group from Secha interested for beehive keeping by facilitating our Bere site and many things are in the pipelines, he summed up.

(Communication Affairs Directorate)