60 marginalised youths in Lae city are being given a second chance to better their lives.
Under Save the Children’s Hand Heart Pocket project, the youths are undergoing educational, SME and life skills training.
Save the Children’s Hand Heart Pocket is a three-year youth project that is being implemented in Port Moresby and Lae.
The program supports marginalised youths between the ages of 14 and 24, including people living with disabilities.
It strives to give them a chance to succeed in education and employment.
Project officer, Mathilda Tanahan, said there are four components of the Hand Heart Pocket program; education, entrepreneurship and internship, SME and life skills and law and order.
As part of the program, a one-week course was run at the AOG Okari Campus.
“We started off with mindset seminar, life skills training on Monday and finished off with SME resource centre,” she stated.
As part of the training, Digicel’s CellMoni team were on ground to register the youths’ SIM card and conduct awareness on their mobile cash transfers.
Their presence is also part of a memorandum of agreement that was signed in Port Moresby on Friday between Digicel Financial Services Limited and Save the Children.
The MOA paves way for Save the Children beneficiaries to receive cash support on their mobile phone using Digicel CellMoni.
Tanahan said this initiative falls under their Cash and Voucher Assistance project, and the partnership with Digicel will also keep their beneficiaries connected.
“We trained our youths and they’re engaged in internship for three months so when CellMoni comes in – giving phones and registering SIMs – it’s very helpful. It’s a way to help them communicate with us, as the project lead, and facilitators also.”
