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Youth Entrepreneurs Try A Thing
posted (July 23, 2015)
In February of this year, we told you about the youth apprenticeship's entrepreneurship program that gave 16 youths a chance create a business of their own. Well, how have they been doing so far? Well a follow up mentorship meeting was held today at the Biltmore to get feedback from them. When we spoke to some of them today, they told us just how good it has been for them and how much this program has changed their life.

UnaMay Gordon, Founder, Institute for sustainable livelihood, leadership and Exchange
"When we launched the program in February for looking really at just getting them to be engaged in employment, find or create employment for themselves. And we provided them with the support of Australian aid, Beltraide, Westrac which is a private sector company here, and Habet and Habet. Up to the level of tools for them to start. This session, which is the second session we are having since February, is a mentorship session where we are bringing those aspiring entrepreneurs with established entrepreneurs, which are clients of Beltraide for some cross fertilization. Where they can say, 'well we've been in business for a year, two years, these are some of the pitfalls, and issues that we have. These are some of the things that you should look out for, and these are some of the challenges that we have. Let's talk about them so that we can move forward as well'. Today since February, after the launch, we bought the tools, they are engaged, employed, some of them are working and have been getting jobs and so. Today is really just a mentorship training session looking at small businesses, looking at some of the issues that we need to look at as small business people, the difference between the formal and informal sector. What do we need to do if we are going to get jobs, how can we become more professional, how do we present ourselves to the public so that we can get a job?"

Clayburn Pascacio, Program Participant
"When I was working without someone to help me, I used to use screw drivers that found and certain things. I had to go beg to borrow tools and I had to pay from the same money that I made. Sometimes I lost the tools and had to pay for them back out of the same money I made. But now I don't have to do that, this program helped me to learn, to be responsibility and you don't have to beg and borrow, I can own now and move forward in life."

Carrie Wade, Program Participant
"I used to work at sea, fishing and diving. If you called me and said 'let's go paint this house', I'd go do that too. I did everything that was hard because I'm a girl and I do hard work. I didn't worry about anything else. While I was in the program I tried to do everything and still made it because now I have a job doing mechanic work."

This is the 2nd mentoring session in the program.

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