Soft Chilima has a vision that drives him every day. “I want to boost my shop [where] fellow youths can come and learn,” he shared. “I want to see my business growing that I can be relied on wider range. That’s my dream.”
Chilima who runs a basic electronics shop, is among 478 Youths who graduated under TEVET’s Youth Vocational Skills training in July this year.
Born and raised in his home village Nkhoma, T.A Mazengera in Lilongwe, Chilima a secondary school dropout admitted he was living a miserable life.
“Honestly, for me to find money was very difficult and sometimes with my friends we were stealing chickens then sell to find a little something” he confessed
After years of being feared as one of the bad boys in the area, his turning point fallen when he got a tip that Youths were registering for World Vision’s program that empowers youths through vocational trainings.
Chilima together with his fellow youths joined the program in March and completed a three-months training in May 2024 and now he has admitted living a transformed life.
“I was selected to pursue Basic Electronics course at Nkhoma Complex Vocational Skills Centre then after completion, I decided to open my shop rather than looking to be employed”
“Now iam the most reliable person here in Nkhoma and iam expert in repairing phones, amplifiers, Televisions, cookers and irons. Things have been working really well for me since I started my shop and iam now able to make K20,000 per day”
The Councillor of the area, Lilongwe-Mpenu Nkhoma Constituency, Councillor Mphatso Kaduya also admitted that there was high behavioral disorders among the youths in the area before the coming in of Youth Empowerment programs.
“We had so many cases of theft among the youths before these initiatives, youths had no reliable means to source money thereby opting for stealing by now we have witnessed reduction of such behavioral disorders”
The programs are funded by World Vision Malawi and according to its Director of Operations, Charles Chimombo the aim is to support government’s efforts of reducing unemployment rate in the country.
The World Vision funded the just ended cohort/graduation with money amounting to K500 million. 216 youths graduated this year for 2023 cohort while 262 graduates are for 2024 cohort.
The target for the World Vision is to makesure 20,000 youths are reached and provided with vocational trainings.
Apart from involvement of World Vision, there is also Sanwecka who provides trainings, some churches are involved in identifying trainees and providing resources while TEVET are the overseers of the projects.
