Young women aged 14 to 24 who graduated in agriculture and animal husbandry at Mashare Irrigation Training Centre in the Kavango East region on Friday have received employment contracts.
IntraHealth Namibia, through the USAID-funded Reach Namibia project, facilitated vocational skills training in horticulture and animal husbandry to 47 adolescent girls and young women from the Kavango East and Kavango West regions.
Reach Namibia Project chief Samson Ndhlovu says Mashare Blue Berries will employ 39 and Keme six.
“Keme Trading is offering employment to six graduates at Mutororo Waterfront for three months, and Mashare Blue Berries farm for six months on a contract basis,” Ndhlovu says.
He says six graduates will resume employment on 9 December at Keme Trading.
He says Mashare Blue Berries provided 21 internship trainees, Sikondo Green Scheme four, Mutororo Waterfront 11, and Alfons Kaundu Climate Resilient Agriculture Centre of Excellence 12.
Speaking at the event, Kavango East Regional Council chairperson Damian Maghambayi said the funding and resources provided to young women to acquire invaluable skills will not only shape their futures but will also contribute to sustainable growth and development.
“You have not only gained knowledge in agriculture but have also developed critical skills in entrepreneurship, leadership, and sustainability,” Maghambayi saya.
Keme Trading director general Lukas Mandema says the graduates achieved their certificates in vocational skills training with 49 credits for NQF level two.
He encourages them to embrace challenges ahead, seek new learning experiences, and strive to contribute positively to communities and the agricultural landscape.
“Keme Trading will be absorbing six girls to be employed for positions of two trainee farm managers, two trainee assistant farm managers, and two trainee farm technicians,” he says.
Mandema says the selection of the six trainees was based on performance and discipline during their theoretical and the job training.
“Therefore, six presented graduates awarded with employment contracts is to remind you that education is a powerful tool, and you now possess the keys to create change not only in your lives but in the lives of those around you,” he says.
A graduate, Magreth Makushe from Korokoko village in the Ndiyona constituency, says she could not further her studies after failing Grade 12.
“I never dreamed of being a graduate, I stand here as a full graduate. IntraHealth Namibia, Reach Namibia project funded through USAID, and other stakeholders made my dream come true,” says Makushe.
Makushe encourages other graduates to go out and implement their skills.
