State Minister Visits YES Center in Yem

On the 10th of August 2019, her Excellency Hiwot Hailu, State Minister of Women, Children and Youth along with her senior envoy, visited a Youth Empowering Service (YES) center in Yem special woreda of SNNP region operating under the support of USAID’s Building the Potential of Youth Activity (POTENTIAL) implemented by Save the Children.

The YES center in Yem has been operational since June 2017 and is offering a package of services to male and female youth aged 15-29 including soft skill training, coaching, reproductive health counseling, computer services with M4CD application, and indoor and outdoor games. It also provides access to service providers directory and links target youth with microfinance institutes.

On the occasion, her Excellency State Minister Hiwot Hailu commended the coordinated support POTENTIAL is providing in collaboration with the regional and local government to enable the youth formulate their own better future. Appreciating the vital interventions and great impact of the Activity on rural youth, the State Minister said the achievements made so far and learnings of POTENTIAL will be key to further extend similar support to the youth in rural Ethiopia. She also expressed her gratefulness to USAID for the financial and technical support it has provided through Save the Children.

Mustefa Issa, Deputy Head of the Women, Children and Youth Bureau in SNNPR, on his part, said that the Activity has achieved remarkable results in supporting the unemployed and under-employed youth in the target woredas of the region. In particular relation to the visited facility, Mustefa said the Yem YES center is a model for other youth service centers in terms of providing diversified services for the youth in the woreda.

Following a short briefing about the center by a project staff underlining the collaborative effort of the Activity and the woreda administration,  Genet Lemma, POTENTIAl’s Chief of Party,  briefed the delegation on the overall implementation strategy and achievements of the Activity to date. Bethlehem Shiferaw, the Regional Project Manager, also briefed the visiting team on the various types of support the project is providing in SNNPR and the great potential of project initiatives to be scaled up in the entire region.

Apart from the youth center, the State Minister-led delegation met youths engaged in poultry production, metal work, leather shoe making and other businesses  and listened to their account of how the soft skill trainings by POTENTIAL have helped them engage in new income generating activities.  The youth also emphasized the importance of continued support until their respective businesses become stable.

In concluding the visit, the Woreda Administration Office awarded participants with  certificates of acknowledgement, and the delegation left their mark in the visited YES center by planting trees in its compound.