Woe, April 24, GNA - Woe in the Keta District is to benefit from a permanent vocational centre to train and equip the youth with employable skills.

The opportunity could however slip by if landowners fail to make a plot of land available for the project, Mr Livinus Acquah-Jackson, Executive Director of New Seed International (NSI) a Ghanaian NGO that is to build the centre with foreign sponsorship, has said.

He said the centre would train people in sewing and dressmaking, batik, hair dressing, kente weaving and catering.

Graduates would be supplied with working tools such as sewing machines, dyes, bowls and hair dryers to start with.

Addressing the graduation ceremony for 23 ladies trained by NSI in dressmaking and batik on Thursday, Mr Acquah-Jackson appealed to the community to show interest in the project to help minimise widespread idling among the youth.

A total of 19 million cedis went into the eight-month training that included equipment and material used for the graduates, the second batch of the NSI programme in the area.

The Ghana AIDS Commission and World Education Ghana took 75 per cent of the cost.

Mr Acquah-Jackson said aside the skill training, graduates come out as peer educators for the HIV/AIDS campaign in their areas.

Mr Kofi Ahiabor, the Keta District Chief Executive, appealed to families and traditional rulers to reconsider the practice of excluding women from benefiting from bequeathed family property including farmlands.

He said equity in the distribution of such property would lessen poverty and vulnerability among women and their children.

Mr Ahiabor congratulated NSI for the programme and expressed the hope that it would enhance the socio-economic development of the area.