Community-Wide Engagement on the Role of Women in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) in Somalia.
July 9, 2018Refugees and host communities in Kakuma and Kalobeyei still face numerous challenges despite the heavy support provided through international aid.
Many funding agencies are concerned about the continued high dependency in both the camp and host community.
As a way to tackle this menace majority of the development partners are heavily investing in supporting young people (both men and women) to acquire relevant skills to enable them to access work opportunities to fend for their livelihoods. It is with this view of pushing for sustainability in the different interventions being implemented by various agencies both in the camp and host community that People Centered Solutions (PCS) partnered with Resilience Action International in Kakuma and Kalobeyei settlement to create community wide awareness on existing skills training and work opportunities within the location and beyond.
Many youths in the target locations have failed transitioning from schools to skills training and the work force denying themselves access to the labor market thus hindering them from obtaining sustainable livelihoods. Failed transitions to skills training and the labor market among the youths reduces their risk of being dependent on aid forever.
With support from with Resilience Action International, PCS partnered with radios Ata Nayeche and Ref FM to design an interactive radio series to create community-wide awareness on the existing skills training and work opportunities within the community and beyond especially looking at the provisions for the refugees Act 2021. The shows brought radio guests to studio who are local role models from the community to speak about the skills training opportunities they have taken advantage of undertook training and the formal work or entrepreneurial opportunities they have been able to secure. These role modelling human stories on radio aimed to inspire other young people and trigger their appetites to identify the different skills training opportunities and join to undertake training and further use the skills to gain some income. Further the radio programs featured interviews with successful young entrepreneurs, vocational training experts, and young people from the refugee camp and host community who had benefited from the skills training opportunities that exist and provided practical advice on how to start a business, access financing, and how to navigate the job market.
As a result of this interactive radio series, young people from refugee camp as well as from the host community became more aware of the existing opportunities available to them through vocational training and entrepreneurship. They were inspired by the success stories they heard and motivated to take action to improve their own lives. In addition to the radio programs, PCS organized community outreach events where young people from both the refugee and host community hold peer learning sessions to further create awareness on existing opportunities, identify the various barriers and drivers that enable or hinder young people from pursuing skills training and work opportunities within their environment and beyond.
