About 167 youth in the Kwahu South District in the Eastern region have passed out of a month's training in batik and tie and dye.

The programme was an initiative of Mr. Seth Adjei Baah, Director of Shaaba Enterprise in Accra.

Speaking at the ceremony at Nkawkaw, last weekend, Mr. Adjei Baah stressed on the need to empower women economically for them not to depend on men for their basic needs.

He said that the initiative is aimed at training over 1,500 youth in the district as part of efforts to equip them with employable skills.

The business man advised the trainees to put whatever they have been taught to good use so as to help support themselves.

He advised the youth not to engage in premarital sex which he explained may may lead to one acquiring the HIV. "The menace can be reduced if women are trained to be independent," he noted.

He attributed the continuous spread of HIV AIDS in the country to poverty, noting that if women are supported to be productive, poverty can be rooted out of the country.

He promised to liaise with other non-profit making organizations to support them with money to start something on their own.

Mr. Adjei Baah also commended the inhabitants of Nkawkaw for providing land for use for the project.

Continuing, he pledged to support the district by building a fruit processing plant that will employ about 200 youth.

On his part, Mr. Dickson Amofa, Chairman of the Shaaba Fan Club, hinted that the club has set up a cocoa-nursing plantation, which has so far nursed about 10,000 seedlings.