Activity One: Vocational skills training for youth and women

 MRF established youth centers in Dangorayo and Badhan districts the centers consists of four departments, namely; Literacy/Numeracy, Computer/IT, Vocational skills/internships and admin/finance Departments. 

The objective of these centers is to enhance education and training opportunities for the youth of Nugaal and Sanaag regions with emphasis on girls and disadvantaged groups (IDPs, refugees and minorities) and to enhance self-esteem and self–worth of the youth through empowering education and awareness rising on certain issues such as HIV/AIDs and FGM/C.

Current Activities of the Centers:

First Department: Vocational Skills

The vocational training program is specially intended for the empowerment of the youth. Its major aim is to provide vocational skills and promote employment opportunities for the graduated trainees. The center awards achievement certificates to the trainees after successful completion of every course. The current training skills are outlined below:

1. Basic Computer course:

The center provides youth with basic computer application courses. These courses are Ms -Windows, Ms-Word, Ms – Excel, Ms -Access, Ms – Power point   and Ms – Publisher. These programs are ordinarily taught in six months.   Sometimes they are taught intensively for 2 or 3 months.  

• Advanced computer/IT course:

Besides the basic computer course, the center provide advanced Computer/IT course to those who are eager to learn advanced course in computer /IT. They are taught on maintenance, repairing, upgrading and troubleshooting of hardware and software components of PC.  This course is ordinarily taught in 3 months, but sometimes it is intensively taught for 1or 2 months.  

•  Financial Accounting/Management 

This course consists of bookkeeping and accounting cycle of service and merchandizing business and introduction to management. Its duration is 10 months in which students are expected to master basic accounting skills in Business/public administration. At the end of the course duration, students are given achievement certificates.

• Business Skills Education

Business education provides girls quality training including, business English, book-keeping, business mathematics, office management, business Administration and Computer skills.  This course takes six months.

• Tailoring and Garments Making

This training is aimed to promote the employment opportunities for girl trainees and equip them with tailoring skills so that they can establish and manage their own small businesses.   The duration of the course is 6 months.

• Henna/ Hair-Dressing

Henna/hair-dressing course is offered to girls trainees through enterprise-based vocational training. The purpose of this course is to provide trainees coiffure and hair-dressing skills through offering theoretical and practical on-job training basis. The planned course duration is three months. The center selects private beauty Salons to conduct the training inside their premises. In addition, center managements also carries out monitoring and follow ups of training progress.

• Cookery/ Nutrition

The aim of this course is to offer quality training to cookery and nutrition skills trainees. They are taught how to prepare delicious and nutritious dishes of different varieties of the local cuisines. In addition, they also learn how to make sweets, biscuits, cakes and cookies for the purpose of generating income for their own families. However, the training is aimed to promote job opportunities for the youth and give them self-esteem and self-worth. The duration of this course is six months.

• Electronics/IT

This course is intended to upgrade the skills of the un-trained/under-trained and unemployed youth, both female and male, which had lost their formal education for certain reasons. The trainees will learn repairing, maintenance and troubleshooting of electronic materials (i.e. TVs, Audio and Video systems, mobile phones, Personal computers, fridges, electric irons etc). The training is conducted at BVTC workshop, providing the students both theoretical and practical lessons. . The duration of the training is 8 months.

1. Electricity

This course is intended for the male youth trainees only. They are expected to learn and master basic knowledge and skills of electricity acquiring same skills and training as the professional electrician. The duration of the training course is 8 months.

Second Department: Literacy/numeracy course

This course is provided to the youth who want to learn the three basics; namely, reading, writing and basic arithmetic. In addition to that, they are also taught other subjects such as: Basic English, environmental science, and health education. These assorted subjects are intended to increase the knowledge and skills of youth up to the level of primary education. After completion the trainees will have opportunities to enroll into the other higher level of education and skills

Activity two: Youth internship program

There are a lot of youth who have learned and trained on various livelihood skills but they lack employment opportunities in the area, this scenario has caused youth to indulge in risk behaviors like joining  gangs, armed groups, clan militias and other proscribed groups.

Mostly youth strive for opportunities; others want to continue with their studies, get employment, experience and participate productively in the workforce. But they are hampered by a lack of opportunities; they leave the country because they have to survive.

For these reasons WV agency in collaboration with MRF organization came up with initiative which they offered jobs placement to youth who had acquired skills through various projects, they registered the youth as interns in various companies and organizations where WV paid monthly basic salary for a period of three months.

The Selected 200 beneficiaries (Male & Female) were both from IDP & Host communities; most of them were youth at risk.  MRF also brought on board local institutions, government agencies and private sector in a bid to encourage them to recognize the potentiality of local human resources and offer job opportunities to them for a long term solution of the situation.

The MRF organization offered that program unequivocal support which was so effective for the program, MRF fully helped in getting the job placements from various organization and institutions; MRF also did daily monitoring, provided counseling and advises to both interns and the Companies.

Furthermore, the MRF organized payments schedules and monthly payments incentives to the interns depending on their attendances and performances in their work place.

Activity three: Youth leadership and advocacy training

 MRF trained 25 youth leaders from all Puntland regions on advocacy and leadership, who in turn organized eleven community service activities in Puntland. Plans are in place for a training of youth leaders in Garowe beginning in June 2014.

During that training participants were equipped the follow areas:

• Skill transfer and Application: It was a significant achievement that the trainees apply the new acquired knowledge into their daily programmes. The trainees emphasized being able to identify the core problem while distinguishing it from the affects or the signs of the problem. Importance of adopting proper facilitation, communication skills while dealing with conflicting groups included areas trainers applied for their daily activities.
• Organizational Management: Provided Organizational Development, Leadership, Networking, Advocacy and Fund Raising Training packages to the training participants in Nugaal and Bari regions-Puntland. At the end of the training, the participants were able to identify the weaknesses and strengths of their organizations, and become capable to redefine their organizational mission, vision and set new strategy planning.
• Networking and Advocacy: participants were able to emphasize the constraints they face in terms of networking, and advocacy those were identified as the most impeding factors for most of the youth organizations. The participants were able to set advocacy goals, set policy strategies, and understand the principles of setting advocacy strategies. Youth groups understood the importance of having enhanced information sharing means that will improve the inter-connection between the youth groups. The participants shared ideas over exchanging and sharing information among youth groups.

Activity four: Life skills based education (LSBE) training

Manaal Relief Foundation( MRF) and Nugal child protection network (NCPN) benefited from GYAD “Guul Youth for agency  and development  grants program in collaboration with UNICEF, these small grants were meant to facilitate training on life skills based education (LSBE) and also to be used to organize a forum in which the agendas on discussion were on various challenges that the youth do face and what ought to be done, the event was recorded and aired through the media, as an avenue for the relevant agencies to be reached.

             Objectives:

• To empower young people in challenging situations
• To help younger generation from indulging in behavioral risks e.g. drug abuse.
• To address the issues that makes majority of the youth in the region to involve themselves in illegal immigration to far flung countries. 
• To create a platform where youth can share ideas, information, experience on specific issue.

The MRF and NCPN formulated their own plan on how to carry out their Life skills based education sessions and they forwarded them to GYAD where we advise them on some few things, the LSBE training for each organization was successful.

On the forum each organization was represented by 20 youths, the study circle methodology was used in order to make the forum a participatory one and all the views and ideas of all participants to  be captured, the subject of debates were on youth agendas, ranging from violence, drugs, education and social life.