The Finn Church Aid (FCA), with support from the Finnish Government’s foreign ministry, over the weekend graduated 43 women who completed six months of training in hairdressing and tailoring in Mingkaman in Awerial County of Lakes State.
The FCA team leader in Mingkaman, Andruga Hilary Jacob, while speaking at the graduation ceremony on Saturday, said the training is very important and that they will give the graduates start-up kits to start their businesses.
“After the graduation ceremony officiated by the commissioner of Awerial County, Mawut Garang, we are distributing tailoring machines and hairdressing items to the graduates,” he said. “One tailoring machine will be shared by two people. We also gave items like Kitenge (cloth material), needles, lubricating machines, oil, etc. For the hairdressers, we have given things like hairdryers, lotions, and many others.”
According to Andruga, the hairdressing training had 23 participants drawn from the Mingkaman IDPs camp and the host communities.
“For tailoring, we registered 20 participants; 10 IDPs and 10 from the host community,” he said. “In this group, we also had 3 women with disability, pregnant mothers and we had young and elderly ladies so it was inclusive.”
Akuc Nyok Akuc, who trained in hairdressing, said she acquired skills in hairdressing and is ready to start her own business.
“We were 26 participants but only 23 women graduated. The FCA people have trained us well and they have given us all the items to start a hairdressing and tailoring business,” she said. “We have received start-up kits which include chairs, mirrors, lotions, and everything needed in a salon.”
On her part, Nyan Karac, who trained in tailoring, was elated and confirmed that she received a sewing machine.
“We are being graduated today (Saturday) in Mingkaman in Awerial county and we are very thankful to God and Finn Church Aid for the knowledge and skills that they have given us over the last 6 months,” she said.
Meanwhile, Maketh Kuot Deng, the FCA livelihoods project officer, said the project has been running since 2014 and has helped in improving the livelihoods of both the displaced people and the host communities in Awerial County.
“We are getting this project support from the ministry of foreign affairs in Finland and this project has supported the people of Awerial County for the last 7 years,” he said. “It is supporting farmers, and fishermen and training women and this is what we are doing as FCA.”