News / National
SME ministry supports LCDZT livelihood programme for disabled
21 Mar 2015 at 14:08hrs | Views
Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development Deputy Minister Noveti Muponora has pledged his ministry's support for the work being done by the Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust to help people with disabilities achieve sustainable livelihoods.
Officially opening the Second Leonard Cheshire Disability Access to Livelihoods Workshop at the trust's headquarters in Harare's Westwood suburb on Thursday, the Deputy Minister said his ministry was working with various other organisations in implementing sustainable livelihood projects for small and medium-sized businesses and cooperatives.
He said this model, which entailed training potential beneficiaries, making start-up kits and capital available and following up to guide beneficiaries in implementing their projects, had proved effective in empowering disadvantaged groups, such as widows, orphans and drought-stricken and disaster victims.
"We are, therefore, grateful that Leonard Cheshire Disability Trust has adopted the same model in their plans to empower people with disability to be self-reliant," he said
He said his ministry had taken a keen interest in what the trust was doing through its livelihoods programme. The ministry was, he said, looking at ways in which it could nurture this initiative.
Speaking at the same occasion, Senator Annah Shiri, who is herself disabled, thanked the Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust for the work it was doing to help people with disabilities live independently.
"I encourage Leonard Cheshire Disability to keep doing what it is doing and spread its work across the country in order for the lives of people with disabilities to be uplifted. We will also help especially those who need starter money for their projects," she said.
The Access to Livelihoods Programme is one of a number of programmes that the Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust runs for the benefit of people with disabilities.
Stakeholders attending the two-day workshop heard some touching accounts from some of the participants of how the trust's Access to Livelihoods programme had assisted them.
Participants included representatives various government ministries, traditional leaders, social workers, local councillors, various non-governmental organisations working with people with disabilities and beneficiaries of the Access to Livelihoods programme.
The Leonard Cheshire Disability Access to Livelihoods programme seeks to help people with disabilities aged between 18 and 45, who live in Harare or within a 100 km radius of the capital, access a sustainable livelihood through helping them seek employment or start viable business projects of their own.
Access to Livelihoods programme manager Angela Rugara explained that the programme included counselling, providing information, career guidance, soft skills training, vocational training and facilitating both formal work placement and informal work placement.
Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust executive director Ben Chikwanha said that since the programme began more than 1 500 people with disabilities had been registered and received career guidance.
More than 2 000 had received training in "soft skills" such as interpersonal skills, general hygiene, etiquette, deportment, computers, job applications, drawing up a curriculum vitae and writing business proposals.
More than 1 000 people with disabilities had undergone vocational skills training, while 590 had started income generating projects and 66 had found employment in the formal employment sector.
The workshop sought to enable those who work or interact with people with disabilities and some of the beneficiaries of the programme to share experiences with a view to making their efforts more effective and exploring various market linkages for the different products being manufactured by individuals and groups with disabilities who had been helped to establish their own business ventures.
Some of these products were on display at the workshop. The Leonard Cheshire Access to Livelihoods programme provides both vocational training and start-up capital or starter packs to enable those who wish to do so to embark on their own small-scale manufacturing business.
Officially opening the Second Leonard Cheshire Disability Access to Livelihoods Workshop at the trust's headquarters in Harare's Westwood suburb on Thursday, the Deputy Minister said his ministry was working with various other organisations in implementing sustainable livelihood projects for small and medium-sized businesses and cooperatives.
He said this model, which entailed training potential beneficiaries, making start-up kits and capital available and following up to guide beneficiaries in implementing their projects, had proved effective in empowering disadvantaged groups, such as widows, orphans and drought-stricken and disaster victims.
"We are, therefore, grateful that Leonard Cheshire Disability Trust has adopted the same model in their plans to empower people with disability to be self-reliant," he said
He said his ministry had taken a keen interest in what the trust was doing through its livelihoods programme. The ministry was, he said, looking at ways in which it could nurture this initiative.
Speaking at the same occasion, Senator Annah Shiri, who is herself disabled, thanked the Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust for the work it was doing to help people with disabilities live independently.
"I encourage Leonard Cheshire Disability to keep doing what it is doing and spread its work across the country in order for the lives of people with disabilities to be uplifted. We will also help especially those who need starter money for their projects," she said.
The Access to Livelihoods Programme is one of a number of programmes that the Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust runs for the benefit of people with disabilities.
Participants included representatives various government ministries, traditional leaders, social workers, local councillors, various non-governmental organisations working with people with disabilities and beneficiaries of the Access to Livelihoods programme.
The Leonard Cheshire Disability Access to Livelihoods programme seeks to help people with disabilities aged between 18 and 45, who live in Harare or within a 100 km radius of the capital, access a sustainable livelihood through helping them seek employment or start viable business projects of their own.
Access to Livelihoods programme manager Angela Rugara explained that the programme included counselling, providing information, career guidance, soft skills training, vocational training and facilitating both formal work placement and informal work placement.
Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust executive director Ben Chikwanha said that since the programme began more than 1 500 people with disabilities had been registered and received career guidance.
More than 2 000 had received training in "soft skills" such as interpersonal skills, general hygiene, etiquette, deportment, computers, job applications, drawing up a curriculum vitae and writing business proposals.
More than 1 000 people with disabilities had undergone vocational skills training, while 590 had started income generating projects and 66 had found employment in the formal employment sector.
The workshop sought to enable those who work or interact with people with disabilities and some of the beneficiaries of the programme to share experiences with a view to making their efforts more effective and exploring various market linkages for the different products being manufactured by individuals and groups with disabilities who had been helped to establish their own business ventures.
Some of these products were on display at the workshop. The Leonard Cheshire Access to Livelihoods programme provides both vocational training and start-up capital or starter packs to enable those who wish to do so to embark on their own small-scale manufacturing business.
Source - Chengetai Chinembiri
