The Centre for Community, Regeneration and Development, CCREAD, has trained and graduated some 95 women and men in the domains of fashion and design, information and communication technology, and hairdressing, among others.
The send-off ceremony of the 11th batch of graduates took place on Friday, April 12, at the CCREAD building located in Bitwingi–Buea.
During the occasion, the trainees showcased the various skills that they have aquired for 23 months at the institute.
They were admitted and trained for free and the majority of them comprised internally displaced persons, IDPs, and widows who probably have faced challenges owing to the ongoing Anglophone Crisis.
Aside from just training and graduating them, CCREAD equally gifted some students based on needs evaluation. They were given equipment that would enable them to kick off without necessarily waiting for someone to employ them. For example, some students from the fashion and design department were given six new sewing machines; those in ICT and hairdressing were also offered equipment.
According to the Director of CCREAD, Dr Ewang Hillary Ngide, the training and support with seed capital is part of his institution’s mission to touch lives and to ensure that the trainees put their skills into practice. He said they are not out to just give people fish. As such, they teach them how to catch the fish and fend for themselves, to ensure sustainability.
“At our level, we have given them the skills and some basic material to go and begin with. So we expect them to start basic micro-enterprises with what they have received from us and maybe with the support of their parents and other cheerful givers that can support them,” he said.
Aside from the vocational training, Dr Ewang said the students equally received skills in entrepreneurship, leadership and conflict management.
Mary Nanyongo Lifanje, a teacher by profession graduated from the Department of Fashion and Design. She said from the beginning, she has always loved sewing.
“It is a passion even though as a teacher that was not what I did in school. I am a language teacher but since it is a passion. When this centre came up I realised that let me come here and realise that which is inside me to help my children” she said. Lifanje said she already has a machine and while expressing gratitude to CCREAD for the training, she said she will start her own workshop.
CCREAD is a humanitarian non-profit NGO operating across Cameroon since 2006. It aims at fostering the social and economic empowerment of communities; promoting environmental protection and sustainability.
By Njodzeka Danhatu
