Pentecost Social Services (PENTSOS), a social ministry of The Church of Pentecost, has provided livelihood opportunities for 35 young people in the Nkwanta and Dunkwa Areas of the church.
The beneficiaries are mostly unemployed young women between the ages of 19 to 35 years as well as some young men who were salvaged from “Gethos” in the Ayanfuri community who were into drugs and other social vices. They have since been provided with immediate sustainable livelihoods in order to face the future with confidence.
PENTSOS has fully paid for the cost of apprenticeship training and provided them with equipment/inputs. In the Nkwanta Area of the Oti Region alone, PENTSOS provided 10 brand new sewing machines, uniforms, and other sewing kits as well as accommodation to 10 young ladies drawn from deprived communities.
Also, in the Ayanfuri District in Dunkwa Area, 25 youth have been supported with start-up kits and apprenticeship training cost to undergo skills training in bead making, bakery, glass fabrication and sewing.
Speaking at an initiation ceremony at Nkwanta, the Nkwanta Area Head of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle James Kwabena Asare, commended PENTSOS for the timely intervention in rescuing the young women who were considering travelling to the cities in search for greener pastures.
He added that but for the intervention, some of the girls would have been given out in marriages by their parents to reduce the burden of catering for them. He admonished the girls to focus on their apprenticeship programme and allow Jesus to reign in their hearts. He urged them to demonstrate to the world that Christians can make it and allow themselves to be used as instruments to possess the nations through vocational skills development.
The PENTSOS Director, Elder Richard Amaning, stated that the livelihood support to the youth forms part of the efforts by PENTSOS to build capacities and create employment opportunities for the unemployed members of The Church of Pentecost in deprived communities through skills development and apprenticeship programme under its sustainable livelihood dubbed “Vocational Skills for Sustainable Development (VoSSD).”
“The project will among others provide start-up support to 200 youth by providing them with the basic training kits/equipment and also support them with financial assistance to establish their businesses after completing the skills training programme.
“These youth after completing the skills training programme will also have to train at least one person for free in creating a sustainable cycle of employment. In the next five years, it is expected that at least 400 other unemployed youth members of the church shall be trained by the 200 would-be masters with employable skills,” he said.
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