UNFPA trains 500 Kayayei in vocational skills

UNFPA has trained 500 head porters at Tema Station, Accra in Ghana to elevate their living standards from economic starvation under the programme, Kayayei Assistance Project (KASPRO).

The six months capacity and skills training programme, according to UNFPA is primarily in response to COVID-19.

The training includes soap making, pastries, beads making, production of bags and sandals, cream making and yoghurt.

Country Representative of UNFPA, Niyi Ojuolape in an interview with the media said, Kayayei are targeted as the most vulnerable in community and that needs to be empowered.

Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection (MGSOP) and its partners distributed hot meals targeted at Kayayei during the covid-19 lockdown period this year.

Government said the programme is to support streets dwellers mostly dominated by Kayakei during the lockdown.

Niyi Ojuolape said, due to the development, the focus of KASPRO is to provide sustainable jobs to beneficiaries.

He said government including corporate organizations recognizes the fact that there were vulnerable people in society and that distributed hot meals.

"...but you only feed them for one day or two days and then you leave them. So what happens after, so we were responding to COVID-19 of the vulnerability on the poor," he opined.

According to him, the initiative is part of efforts to empower young people to be responsible and have control over their reproductive health and sexual life.

"Because they are women, their vulnerability includes the fact that people come around to rape them. They are vulnerable to rape, they are vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections, they are vulnerable to unwanted pregnancies and they are vulnerable to anything that concerns the poor."

He emphasized that the programme provided beneficiaries information, and trained them to have economic freedom for themselves to avoid rape, gender-based violence and unwanted pregnancies.