Wum council has recently empowered some 200 youths drawn within the municipality, as part of her social cooperate responsibility.
Another batch of 50 youths, was recruited thanks to Hon. Wallang Richard Ebua, Member of Parliament for Menchum South Constituency, giving a total of 250 youths. The global envelop of this youth empowerment exercise stands at CFA Seven million five hundred thousand francs (CFA 7.500.000).
The closing ceremony took place at the Wum Town hall under the watchful eyes of the Senior Divisional Officer for Menchum, Mr. Abdoullahi Aliou, on Friday September 3rd, 2021.
Wum council stands tall in the division as the only council that has never stopped empowering the youths in a bit to curb the high rate of unemployment rocking the municipality.
The challenges faced in this youth empowerment drive has been the sociopolitical stalemate in the two English speaking regions.
The holiday makers described as full of enthusiasm, hardworking and obedient, were supervised by Councillor Buo Ephraim Amuh, Chairperson of works material and infrastructure committee of the Wum council for a two month employment.
The Mayor of Wum council, Mr. Dighambong Anthony Mvo, showered praises on the youths who braved the odds to assist the council in keeping the streets and other public premises clean, as they dug blocked gutters, took care of ornamental trees and flowers planted last year that help to beautify the municipality.
He encouraged other youths who have never benefited from this youth empowerment scheme to apply when the opportunity comes.
The chief executive of the division, Mr. Abdoullahi Aliou, lauded the initiative of the council to accompany the youths of the municipality, while adding that the council is a non-replaceable catalyst of development in the society, and called on the council to ensure sustainability of the ornamental trees and flowers taken care of by the youths during these holidays.
The SDO encouraged all these children to go back to school and become great people tomorrow. He reiterated through Kofi Annan’s quote, the importance of education.
“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”
Before calling on the Wum council to put in place a sustainable mechanism, to ensure that the job done by the children should not be in vain. The council has the obligation to continue maintaining cleanliness within the municipality.
Other speakers during the occasion included Councillor Buo Ephraim Amuh, Chairperson of works, material and infrastructure committee of the Wum council, who urged the youths to always be obedient and respectful. He also called on the council authorities,to see how the number of youths could increase.
The youths were overwhelmed with euphoria and expressed it through their songs and speech read by KETCHAH RHODA NDUM.
She said” it has not been easy doing this job, especially in this crisis”. She further said that the holiday job was an ideal opportunity for them to stay away from COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, drug abuse, Typhoid and other social ills.
This year holiday job was marked by working along the streets, digging and opening culverts, planting flowers, working around church premises, palaces, schools, delegations and administrative buildings.
"We beg on the council to make sure that this holiday job comes up very often and find means to continue to follow up this cleanliness of the town."
She also enumerated the difficulties faced in the course of this holiday exercise; “We had so many difficulties on the field: no gloves, no rain boots and other useful materials. We therefore call on the council to provide us with these items next time so as to enhance our work.”
They thanked all participants at the ceremony and thanked the Wum council for the financial package that will go a long way to help them prepare the upcoming academic year.
It would be of utmost importance to note here that, since 2014, the Wum Council has effectively empowered 645 youths through holidays jobs, to the global amount of CFA twenty three million five hundred and fifty thousand (CFA23,550,000)
By Ndefru Melanie
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Pictures; OJ Slim