Alhaji Sherihu Tajudeen, Assemblyman for Nima East in the Ayawaso East Constituency, on Tuesday appealed to CHF International to extend the Youth Engagement in Service delivery (YES) project to communities within the constituency.
He said this would enable the youth in the constituency to get sustainable means of employment.
The Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF) International, now known as Global Communities, is a non-profit development and humanitarian organisation that operates in approximately 30 countries.
Alhaji Tajudeen made the appeal on Monday when addressing officials of CHF International, chiefs and opinion leaders at a ceremony to mark the end of the three-year YES project.
Communities that benefited from the project are Avenor, Agbogbloshie, Sabon Zongo, Ayidiki and James Town in Accra.
A total of 770 people were targeted in each community where each household got two containers for solid and organic waste separation as well as donation of waste bins and protective gears to basic schools.
The assemblyman said Nima East was one of the densely populated areas and through the efforts of the Ayawaso East Sub-Metropolitan Assembly, majority of the youth had received training in trash bag production and mobile phone repairs among others under the YES programme.
Alhaji Tajudeen said the Accra Metropolitan Assembly policies and strategies were very responsive to CHF’s YES programme hence the need for the extension to enable more of the youth to get jobs.
Mr George Amoasah, Senior Project Officer of CHF, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the YES programme was designed to support the creation of employment for youths in targeted areas, especially low income indigenous communities, in waste management and environmental cleanliness.
He said the organisation had built three compost facilities which were being managed by the youth at Avenor, Ga Mashie and Kwabenya with each costing about 22,000 US dollars where they receive food waste from households, restaurants and “chop bars” and process them into organic fertilizers.
Mr Amoasah said through the YES programme, four “Buyback centres” had been established at Avenor, Ga Mashie, Nima and Alajo which are managed by the youth who bought “pure water sachets” from households and sell them to recycling companies.
“There are trashy centres, also known as plastic fashion accessories centres, at Avenor, Ga Mashie and Nima where water sachets were used to produce bags, wallets, pen/pencil holders, sandals, hats, rain jackets, and dustbins among other things to generate income,” he said.
Mr Amoasah said beneficiaries were also trained in occupational health safety businesses; simple record-keeping and business proposal development and linked to micro-financial institutions and banks for financial assistance.
He said the youth were expected to utilise their skills and the facilities to make a living.
Mr Amoasah said the CHF had constructed an educational compost facility and laboratory complex at the Bio-technology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.
He expressed gratitude to community leaders, the sub-metros and all who played diverse roles in the success of the programme.
