USAID launches Sh24 billion youth programme in Tanzania

Dar es Salaam. The American international aid agency, USAID, has initiated a $10.6 million (Sh24bn) youth empowerment project that seeks to offer vocational and life skills to thousands of Tanzanian young men and women.

The four-year Kijana Nahodha (Young Captain) project, which was launched yesterday in Zanzibar, would impart Tanzanian youth with skills that enable them become effective agents of change in their communities.

Zanzibar President Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi officiated the launch.

A statement released by the US Embassy yesterday said the youth-focused USAID Kijana Nahodha project would entail cross-cutting programmes on employment, education, agriculture, governance, and health that are designed to build the capacity of the youth aged between 15 and 25 years of age.

The capacity building undertaken through the project will include increasing access and quality of the youth to remedial skills and vocational training. It also entails improved awareness of mental health services through in-person, peer-led and digital educational tools, as well as strengthening clear channels of communication between youth and local government to elevate youth’s voices in civic life, politics, and policymaking.

The project will be implemented in all regions of Unguja and Pemba and in Dar es Salaam, Morogoro by T-MARC, an independent, locally managed non-governmental organization.

The US embassy further said in the statement yesterday that the Kijana Nahodha project expects to empower approximately 10,000 in Zanzibar and 35,000 in the two targeted mainland regions. USAID Mission Director Kate Somvongsiri remarked: “Through the project youth will receive new skills and appropriate knowledge to run a business.”